Elfangor's Dimension
by co-to-nuts
Summary: Ever wondered where the Chee get their information? It only takes one thing: Seven teens. Added prolouge, R&R people!
1. Ellimist Prolouge

**Okay, first off we need to say we do not own Animorphs... never have, never will... **

**Second, we don't own any fanfiction except anything by star29818 and Faith360, so please don't sue us.**

**Third, read and review, it's all we ask. I mean, you readers make our day, so PLEASE tell us how we can improve more, or if you like our story. **

**Oh, and just erase the books after 20 out of your heads, it'll help you understand.**

**THANKS! - Faith and Star**

* * *

The timeline. It's a complicated thing. 

Small things can affect so much. For instance, a butterfly flapping it's wings.

Or seven teens meeting each other.

Yes, that event, where those seven teens first met, would change everything.

Rachel has a chance at life.

Jake has a chance at sanity.

Tobias has a chance at companionship.

Ax has a chance at humanity.

Cassie has a chance at peace.

Marco has a chance at love.

And David...David, David, David. He plays a...complicated role in the lives of the Animorphs. Most people believe him evil, utterly insane. He isn't. But the Crayak is.

David was the Crayak's tool, his way of bringing down the Animorphs. As you well know, it didn't work.

But in the beginning, David was the seventh Animorph. The one that would help them win the war. The one who would save Rachel. But I did not forsee the Crayak using him that way, controlling him. Poor David was trapped in his own mind, the Crayak taunting and laughing at him.

I, trying to save him, made a way to release him of his control.

Forgiveness.

Of course, after the way he acted, none of the Animorphs wanted to forgive him. None of the Animorphs. There is someone, if given the chance, would have forgiven him. She, however, was pushed far away from him by the Crayak. I have found a way, a way to make this future that never happened, these wonderful things that could have been, become real. And all I need, are seven other teens.

The Agents, as I like to call them.

The Crayak will use them to sabatoge the war effort, just by trying to help. I have found a way to prevent that. Each team, the Animorphs, and the Agents, will recieve a weapon.

Each team, will recieve a book series.

After all, knowledge is power.

And what better way to start a story, then with an introduction?

I am the Ellimist.

And this is how I won the game.


	2. Alex

**Okay, I don't own Animorphs, or anything else recognizable in this fic. Also, I do not own any other stories that I may bring up in this fic. Such as Melethiel's 'Sugar Mice' or 'The Animorphs Characters, Your Very Own Manual' by PowerPen. I hope it's alright if I used your fics in this, if not I'll change it. **

Hello, my name is Alex. I was at the arcade with Josh, my best friend, and Audrey, my sisters best friend. Alyssa, my sister, and her other friend Katherine had gone shopping while me and Josh played in the arcade, and Audrey decided she'd hang out with us instead of going shopping. Audrey just isn't that kind of girl.

Anyway, I was playing Soul Caliber 2 with Audrey and Josh watching, when I suddenly got game over.

"Hah! I told you you couldn't beat him!" Josh high fived Audrey.

"Now, why don't you let a professional show you how to play against this dude," Audrey shoved me out of the way and hit New Game. "Hey, I need a quarter."

Josh pulled one out of his pocket and inserted it. "You owe me, Audrey,"

"So? _You _owed _me_ for that rude remark about me being a chick,"

"Just keep the stupid quarter."

She smiled innocently and picked her character. "First off Alex, you picked Rapheal. He's like the wimpiest ever. What you do is you pick _her_," She picked a chick that looked like she was from brazil. "She can kick some serious butt,"

"I'd like to see it happen," I said, then turned to Josh. "Bet you _and_ her five dollars that she can't do it. If I loose I give both of you five bucks, but if I win you give me money. Deal?"

Josh smiled, "I up it to ten dollars, and it's a deal!" We shook hands and Audrey shook her head. "I just made an easy ten bucks."

She took out Rapheal, then Taki, then more until she made it to the boy I was trying to beat. Valdo.

She lost the first round, won the second.

"You might as well just give me my twenty dollars," I smiled. But then she...

She won.

"Ha! In your face!" She jumped up and down, then looked at me. "I'll take my ten dollars now,"

"You cheated! There's no way you could've won that without cheating!" I objected as I pulled two tens out of my wallet. I gave one to Audrey, the other to Josh. Audrey even had the nerve to hold it up to the light to make sure it wasn't counterfeit.

That's how Aly and Kat found us.

"Alex, did you make another bet against Audrey?" Aly asked as they came over, hands laden with bags from The Limited, Gap, Old Navy, and Clair's.

"Yeah, and I just lost my allowence on her and Josh. Some friends!" I accused, and then they started laughing.

"Hey Josh," We turned around and saw Josh's girlfriend, Cady, walking towards us with her friend Carman. Carman is also one of our friends from school.

"Hey Cady, hey Carman." Audrey said. "I wanna go spend my ten dollars, Carman, wanna go with me to Hot Topic?"

"Sure!" Carman agreed, black curls bouncing. They walked off, more than likely to go buy a Pirate's of the Carribbean bracelet or some other thing with crossbones.

Just then some dude, he looked familiar, came up to us. "Hey Josh, how's it goin'?"

"I'm doing all right, Tom. Oh, everyone, this is Tom Berenson, and he's my next door neighbor. Tom, that's my best friend, Alex, his sister Alyssa, her friend Katherine, and you already know Cady. Audrey and Carman just ran off." Josh introduced us, and I got bad vibes off this guy. I know, I know, what a hippy thing to say.

"You know, Josh, we could benefit from having this many new people join the Sharing, why don't you all come tonight? It's on the beach." Tom smiled, and it seemed cold. "We're having barbeque. Oh, and Jake said he'd bring his friends too."

"We'll think about it, nice to see ya Tom, but we need to bail. You know, parents and all. Plus we have to go find Audrey and Carman." Josh said and started to make his way out of the arcade, and we all followed.

"Cool, I'll see you tonight?"

"Maybe, bye!" We all hurried toward Hot Topic to find Audrey and Carman. Alyssa had a puzzled glance on her face.

"What is it Aly?"

"Berenson... it sounds so familiar... I can't place it!" She put both hands on either side of her head and pretended to rack her brain. "I need to remember... and the Sharing sounded familiar too."

Well, we walked all the way to Hot Topic and found Audrey and Carman easily. When Alyssa asked Audrey about the Sharing, Audrey gave her a dumb stare.

"How can you _not_ remember that, Aly? When we were thirteen we couldn't shut up about it. Let me give a few hints: Does Yeerk ring a bell?"

Aly shook her head no.

"Andalite?"

"Nope, nada."

"What about the name Marco? Does that bring anything back?"

Alyssa nodded her head yes. "Yeah!" Then her face clouded. "Oh man, that was _the_ Tom Berenson! _The_!!!"

Audrey went pale. "Oh crap, Aly... this is not good!"

"Look, can we just leave the mall? I'd prefer to actually make it home before having to run into that Tom dude again." I said, noticing that Josh and Cady and Carman had rushed ahead of us. "Come on, let's go!" We all ran to catch up.

_**-:- -:- **_

We were on our way home when I heard something come up behind me. I looked around, but saw nothing. I kept going, thinking I was getting paraniod when I heard it again. Suddenly I heard,

"Get them!" And then it all faded.


	3. Katherine

"Oh, god, what is this place?" I heard someone say.

It was dark. Or, at least, it was to me. But then again, I had been knocked unconscious and I guess I was just coming to.

My name is Katherine. Also known as Kat. Just a few hours or so ago I was having fun, shopping with my best friend. But now, I had no idea.

"I wanna go home!" That sounded like maybe Cady, but I wasn't sure. I tried to open an eye.

"Holy crap, Aly, look at those things! Hork-Bajir! Actual Hork-Bajir!"

"Audrey, I wouldn't be happy about that little fact!"

When I opened my eyes I saw we were in a cage of some sort. All of us. Me, Alyssa, Audrey, Carman, Cady, Josh, and Alex. In a cage in the most horrible place I could ever imagine.

"Look, Kat's decided to join us in the living nightmare," Alex looked down on me and helped me to my feet. "If I was you I'd have stayed unconscious,"

I brushed myself off and looked around. There was a lot of cages, with humans, and other things - aliens - in them. There were several people milling about, but what caught my eye was what was in the center of this cavern-like place.

A big lead-grey pool.

Lining the walls around the pool were several shacks, and there were two piers that led off the edge. At those two piers there were lines. Lines of human and alien. One line was waiting patiently, and when they got to the end two big bladed, snake like aliens grabbed their arms as the knelt to the serface of the pool. A splash was heard, and the human wasn't patient anymore.

"Let me go! No, no please! NO!!!" She screamed and the two aliens put her in a cage beside ours. Then they went back to their postions.

The second line was people struggling. Human and alien alike. They faught, they struggled, but the bladed aliens held fast. When they got to the end of that pier, the aliens shoved them to their knees, head out over the sludge, and then after a few minutes the human stopped screaming, stopped crying, and walked calmly away. It was a little unnerving, to say the least.

"Oh man, I will never wish for the Animorphs to become real again if I can wake up from this..." Audrey's voice trailed off as a bladed alien, a Hork-Bajir as Aly had whispered, headed to us.

We froze. I mean, if one of those walking razors was walking toward you, you'd freeze too! He came to the cage door and unlocked it, then roughly grabbed Cady and pulled her out.

"No! Cady!" Josh yelled, but the door was closed. There was nothing we could do. She was put into the line. The line of the strugglers.

"Let me go! NO!" Cady screamed, but the Hork-Bajir covered her mouth.

"Oh, god, I don't want to be a Controller!" Alyssa sounded near tears, matter of fact, we all were.

"Our only hope is that the 'Andalite Bandits' show up in a raid." Audrey whispered.

"Oh come on, Audrey!" Josh yelled. "Stop treating it as if it were a story! This is real, not some stupid book you've read a million and one times! We could die for crying out loud!" Her eyes grew wide, her fists clenched. Suddenly she swung. Hit Josh square in the nose.

"Ahh!" He yelled as he cupped his nose. "That hurt!"

"Good! It should!" She yelled back, eyes blazing.

"Guys, stop it," I replied calmly. "Audrey, quit punching people in the face. Josh, quit being negative."

"It's hard to be positive, that's for dang sure," Alex murmured.

Suddenly we heard something moving behind us.

"Where are we?" A bleary eyed Carman asked as she looked around. "Oh no, there's Cady!" She pointed. Cady had gotten to the near front of the line. The last person infront of her walked away, and she was pushed on her knees.

"Cady!" Josh yelled, but it was futile. It was done. She was a controller. The Hork-Bajir came back towards us again, and this time he grabbed Alex. But more Hork-Bajir came, and in the end we were all taken from the cage.

Soon it was Alex's turn, then Carman, Aly, Audrey, and finally me. I was shoved onto my knees. "No! Let me go!" I screamed, but it was ineffective. My ear was shoved into the sludge, and I felt something tickle my ear. Suddenly it stretched, and I could feel it enter my ear. I screamed. I heard someone chuckle from near by, but I didn't pay attention. I could feel it slither, like a worm or a snake into my ear. The Hork-Bajir let go, and I tried to run.

I couldn't move. It was like being paralyzed. Soon I heard a voice inside my head.

-(Hello, Katherine Alexis Wells. My name is Essilas 436.)-


	4. Audrey

-(Stop struggling, you tireless human, in the end I will win. The Yeerks always prevail!)- The Yeerk yelled at me and tried once again to force me into the corner of my mind. But I didn't give up.

-(Oh, come on, like I'm gonna fall for your 'We are Yeerks, we are so big and bad so fear us!' speech.)- I said.

Hello, my name is Audrey. I'm not myself, as you might expect. I am now the worst nightmare I could ever imagine. I was a traitor to my own species. I was a human-Controller.

-(Let us go through your memories, shall we?)- It taunted. I refused to rise to the bait. It looked through them like a book. And it went through them all!

-(Well, what do we have here? A book, about us? And these 'Andalite Bandits'? Well, I believe we may have a very interesting piece of information for the Visser!)-

-(Don't even waste your time, Yeerk, it's a silly children's book... if only K.A. knew...)- I sneered. -(She shouldn't have been so kind describing your slimy, ignorent species.)- I laughed the laugh that had always made the bullies back up. It did nothing to the Yeerks.

-(We'll see who's laughing when earth has been taken over,)- It sneered.

Oh I wanted to slug him... or whatever it was. Hehe, slug the slug... Am I going insane? I wouldn't be surprised.

-(Wish what you want, human, you may have been a bully back then, but now you are the bullied.)-

"Ahem, Saris, the Visser needs you," A teenage boy, probably around my age, came up and started to guide me.

"Exscuse me, but I can walk on my own, Calsiss," The Yeerks said, using my intemidating voice. The voice I had won many fights with, was now being used against me.

"No, the Visser ordered me to do this." He said, then he whopped me on the head. Oh man, the pain! I dropped into unconsciousness.

**_-:-_**

A few hours later I woke up.

I was in a park... full of dogs? Tied up in a chair?

-(This isn't good...)- The Yeerks let it's trail of thought wander off just as I caught on.

-(You've lost, big time, Yeerk. Big time.)- I laughed.

-(It is not over until the Yeerks prevail!)- He said angrily.

-(Yeah, yeah, go ahead and think that.)- I replied. -(But in three days, Saris 572, you'll be a big puddle of mush.)-

-(Says you, human.)- It said, laughing. I could still tell he was nervous. -(Says you.)-

Just then, a boy crouched in front of me. He was the same person whom had knocked me out back at the Yeerk Pool!

"How are you doing?" He asked, putting a cool rag to my head where he had whopped me.

"It is none of your concern, traitor." The Yeerk hissed.

"I was talking to the girl, slug." He said. "I'm sorry that I had to hit you so hard, but it was the only way to get you out."

"I accept your apology." The Yeerk said. "Now, pease untie me and I will be a perfect angel."

-(Oh, come on!)- I yelled. -(Now he'll _know_ it's you talking! I would never say something as goody-goody as that!)-

-(Hence the reason that I said it, now shut up.)- He smirked.

"I can't do that until three days." The boy said, removing the rag. "Oh, I need to go check on the curly headed guy. I'll be back later." He said, then got up and walked off. He must have been talking about Josh, because he's the only curly headed guy that I know of that would be here. Wait a minute.

-(Yes, your human companions are all here.)- The Yeerk huffed. -(_You_ may have been knocked unconscious, but _I_ on the other hand remaind fully awake. I just was imobile.)-

-(Whatever, Yeerk.)- I said. -(I can't wait till you're out of my head, I get tired of all your arrogance.)-

-(Oh, but you'll never get rid of me.)- The Yeerk replied.

-(Wanna make a bet?)- I asked, laughing.

-(Why?)- He asked. -(You would only loose.)-

-(I'm good at winning bets.)- I replied with an attitude.


	5. Alyssa

Hello, my name is Alyssa. My friends call me Aly, and my Yeerk calls me Pathetic Human. I call him a lot of names, most of which are unpleasant. The Yeerk calls himself Fadrin 964, or Sub-Visser 34.

Yeah, wierd, huh?

Well, let's recap on resent events: I went to the mall with my brother, his friends, and my two best friends, then left, was captured by Controllers, made a Controller, and was now sitting in a park, filled with dogs, while my Yeerk complained. Yeah, he's a real whiner.

-(I need to get back! Oh, these ropes are too strong, I need to get out of here!)- Whine whine, complain complain.

-(Personally I'm very content, Yeerk Scum 964.)-

-(That is Sub-Visser 34 to you, pathetic human!)- He yelled, but I could feel him getting nervous. I was glad.

Suddenly the same boy that had carried me from the Yeerk pool yesterday showed up infront of me.

"How're you feeling?"

"Let me go! When I get back to the pool the Visser will promote me for -"

"Oh, come off it Yeerk!" He yelled. "I want to talk to the girl. Now."

"Why should I?" The Yeerk used my voice to talk. It felt wrong. I was a slave to an alien that looks like a slug, what would feel right?

"Because if you don't I'll let you die of starvation." He scowled. "Give you a horrible death. If you surrender, I won't kill you, I'll put you in something similiar to Kandrona and send you back. But you have to come out."

The Yeerk in my head thought it over. "How can I know you'll keep your word?"

The boy laughed. "Because I can't cause any violence. It's against our laws."

"Fine, you win, I'd rather not die as painfully as Kadrona starvation." The Yeerk sighed and I slowly came to grips that he had given up. He had lost.

-(Ha! In your face Yeerk!)- I yelled and screamed and cheered. Soon I could feel myself coming back into control. _I_ blinked my eyes. _I_ moved my arms. I. Me.

Soon there was a plunk sound and I came back under control of myself.

"I'm free!" I whispered, then started to shout it. "I'm free!"

"Good, I'm glad." The boy smiled, then picked up the Yeerk.

"Why did you tell him you wouldn't smash the little thing?" I asked, suddenly angry.

"I told him _I_ wouldn't. I didn't tell him that _you_ wouldn't." I smiled. _I_ smiled.

"I like your thinking," I grinned and looked at him. "But you'll have to untie me first." He nodded sheepishly, I guess he'd forgotten I was tied up. He went around, untied my wrists and my ankles. I stood up and rubbed my wrists.

"I'm sorry I had to tie them so tight, Yeerks are ingeniously sneaky." He apologized. "Now, there's a hidiously ugly brain-stealing alien on the ground." He grinned, and I walked over and smooshed that stinkin' Yeerk beneath my tennis shoe.

"That felt unnaturally good!" I smiled and he nodded.

"I assume you want to join your only other free friend now?" He asked. I nodded.

"Who is it?"

"Josh Addison."

"And the others?"

He sighed. "Still battling the Yeerks in their heads." He shook his head. "Don't worry about them. By the way, I'm Erek. Erek King."

"Alyssa Jacobs," I said, then froze. I stared at him. "_You're_ Erek King?"

He looked at me funny. "Who else would I be?"

"But, you're a -" I stopped midsentence and smiled. "You're a Chee, right?"

He looked at me, wide eyed. "How... Why... What else do you know?"

"I know that you are a race of Androids that cannot do violence. It's against your programming." He nodded. Then the thought hit me. "And you help the Animorphs on occasion." He stared at me.

"I won't even ask how you know that," He gestured to a small hut like thing in the middle. "Your friend's in there, I have to go." He then jogged off and I walked into the cabin.


	6. Josh

I heard someone approaching the cabin. Okay, that's giving it too much credit; it was a shack.

My name is Josh. Josh Addison, though I don't know what it would mean to you. I'm a nobody.

Yesterday I was infested by a race of parasitic aliens called Yeerks. Or was it two days ago? I don't know, but what I _did_ know was that I wasn't a slave anymore! I was a free human being.

I looked up and saw my friend Alyssa walking into the shack.

"Aly? That you?" I asked, not sure whether she was free as well or not.

"Yeah, the slug's out." She grinned and came over and hugged me. I hugged her back.

"So, the Chee are real, huh?" I asked. I had borrowed the books from Aly, Alex, and Audrey. Carman borrowed them as well, only she read them at their house.

"Yep, I'll bet Audrey is exstatic." She smiled. Her and Audrey were obssessed with Animorphs. It was their passion, their hobby. They both wrote fan fiction. Alex, Carman, and me only read them. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, I'll bet. And I'll win, unlike Alex." She laughed, I laughed.

"Knock, knock!" Erek called as he walked inside as well. "How're you two doing?"

"Great," Aly smiled. I nodded. "Perfectly free."

"Good, the other Yeerks aren't letting up, and tomorrow's their last day." He rubbed the back of his holographic neck. "I don't think we'll be able to relieve the others of the horrifying ordeal of starvation."

I nodded. "We've read about it."

"How?" Erek looked alarmed.

"The Animorphs books." Aly said. "Animorphs is a series about 5 kids and an Andalite fighting against the Yeerks. Along with other various species of aliens that happen to cross their paths."

"Like Ellimist, Helmacrons, Crayak." I shivered at the last one. That's what the others would have to endure. The big red eye.

"Yep, and they help and are helped by the Chee, and occasionally the Ellimist." Aly finished.

"Wow, you two know your Animorphs." Erek whistled.

"Yep, following the adventures of Jake, Marco, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, and Ax are our lives." I rolled my eyes. "Quite litterally for Aly and Audrey. They are _way_ too obssessed."

"Hey! _I'm_ not the one who insisted on sending us 'Sugar Mice' every day!" Aly objected, then called out. "I am the diaper king!"

Erek looked at her weird, so I explained.

"Okay, on this fan fiction website the author Melethiel wrote a story called Sugar Mice. It's where Tobias gets hyper off of sugar mice, and then they go to the mall. Since he's in human morph he keeps sending stupid thought-speak messages to the others." I shook my head. "It's a cute fic" **(A/N: I LOVE THAT FIC!!! If you haven't read it, I suggest you do!)**

"Wow... I think we may have to try that on the real Tobias. I'd get a kick outta that!" Erek laughed. "Well, it's about dark, so I suggest we get some rest. It's gonna be a _long_ day tomorrow." He went to the corner. "Alyssa can sleep here," He pulled out a trundle from a closet. He pulled out another one, placed it on the opposite wall, then pulled out blankets and pillows. "And Josh can sleep here."

I nodded. "Thanks, man, I'm beat." I plopped down on the little lumpy bed, and covered up.

"Yeah, being infested by aliens is tiring work, but it's fun when you squish them," Aly said, yawning.

"Okay, good-night guys, we'll probably be woken up early by the others." Erek said as he exited the shack. I stifled the yawn, and once I got comfortable I was dead to the world.

**A/N: Okay, I do not own the fanfic 'Sugar Mice'. It belongs to Melethiel. GO READ IT, IT'S HILARIOUS!!!**


	7. Cady

-( NO!!! No, I must get free!!!)- The Yeerk in my head screamed.

Hello, my name is Cady Roberts. My Yeerk is Tunrin 804. I was the first one to be made a Controller, so I was the first to start the starvation process. It was terrible.

-(Except it, Yeerk, you've lost.)- I said, trying to make it calm down.

-(No human, you do not understand... though you will in time... when _it_ sees you, you will cower in fear, as will I.)- It's cockiness of the past two days was gone, and in it's place was insanity, fear, and just total chaos.

"You okay in there?" A sudden face appeared infront of me. It was the boy who had rescued/kidnapped me two days ago.

"Why should you care?" The Yeerk spat at him. The guy calmly wiped his cheek and continued.

"I wish I could have made it easier on you and your host. But, if this is the way it happens, so be it. Hang in there, Cady. It'll be over soon." He got up and walked away.

-(When what sees me, Yeerk?)- I asked, not sure of what it meant by it's earlier comment.

-( Not _what,_ persay...)- It replied. -(More like an omni-potent being, but you humans do not believe in such things, do you?)-

-(Depends. Some people believe there's a greater force out there, other people don't. My friends and I believe that there is a God out there. What do you Yeerks believe in?)- I asked.

-(We believe in nothing except ourselves and the Kandrona. We do not have any '_gods_' that you humans have. Though I wouldn't describe this being a god. I'd call him the exact opposite. He does appsolutely no good to anyone, unless they serve him. And not very many people enjoy being such a horrible creature's servant.)- It sighed.

I tried to understand, but I can't hide anything from the Yeerk. -(Do not even try to comprehend, human. You might understand sooner than you think.)-

-(What do you mean by that?)- I asked.

-(What I mean is this: Do not haste in finding out what the _Crayak_ is. Do not even wish to understand.)- It's answer scared me, to be honest. It scared me to think that whether I liked it or not, I would _have_ to see this creature.

Soon, the starvation began to take it's toll. I began seeing more of this Yeerks past life, and into the time it bagan to take aliens.

First I saw - or rather felt would be the word - the peace that came to the Yeerk when it swam in it's home pool.

I saw the excitement in the Yeerk the very first time it had been inside a Gedd. Seeing colors, dim colors but colors all the same. Being able to touch for the first time. Being able to smell. Oh, the senses!

Then I saw something I wish I hadn't. It had been listed as a Taxxon controller. The horror of not being able to control it's host with the incredible hunger washed over me. It was like a living nightmare.

Then I saw the Hork-Bajir host he had acquired. A young, strong, healthy male. Very rebellious, but all the more fun for the Yeerk to torment him with.

Then his very first human host. A young girl named Mazi. She had joined the Sharing thinking it would help her fit in. She screamed and pleaded and begged, but it made no difference to the Yeerk. He laughed at her screams.

A second human host. A man this time. A police officer by the name of Gibbs. He had also faught, begged, and cried in his corner, but it was useless.

And, finally, me. It was me. Me, the only host that he had only been infested in for 3 days. Me, the host that he was going to die in. Me, the one host that had bested him.

-(See what happens? Oh, _no_!!!)- I wondered what that meant, but then something worse than anything before caught my eye. It was a big, red, blood-shot eye. A giant big red eye.

_Please don't look at me... Don't look at me!!!_ I begged in my head, but it did. It focused on me. I started to cry. I could barely notice that Josh, Alyssa, and the guy were crowded around me, talking to me in soothing tones.

"It'll be okay, Cade. You can make it."

"Come on Cady, just focus. It'll be over in a minute."

" Okay, Cady, just a few more minutes then it'll be done forever."

_How can I wait a few more minutes when that... that... that THING is looking at ME!!! _I wanted to scream.

"Cady? That was you, wasn't it?" Josh smiled his small grin.

I looked up. Wait a minute. _I_ looked up. _Me_. _I_ did it.

I looked beside me and saw a shrivled gray slug. But I payed it no mind. I just let the guy, Erek he said, untie me. Then I ran into Josh's and Aly's embrace.


	8. Carman

(Die! Come on! Just give up! You know you're going to lose!) I sneered, laughing. Carman Daerenor was going to be free in a matter of minutes. I just had to get through Cr- (What the crap?!) I screamed, a big read eye had popped out of nowhere.

(Not even an arrogant Andilite is unphased by the Crayak.) The Yeerk laughed. I knew who that big red eye staring at me was, I was just surprised he had popped out of thin air without warning.

(Uh-huh, you're more scared than I am. And by the way, if you want to see arrogant, I suggest you look in a mirror.) I said, the Yeerk obviously didn't have a good lie, because he didn't say anything more. I could see a guy in front of me.

"Hold on, it's almost over." He said, I mentally prepared myself. The Yeerk made my body cringe, I felt the pain too. I closed my eyes. Wait...I closed my eyes! Me!

"It's over." I sighed, leaning back in my chair. The boy started untying my ankles.

"Yep, you put up a good fight." The boy said, moving to untie my wrists. He picked up a bottle of water on the grass beside him.

"Thanks." I said, taking a good long sip.

"Carman Harris, right?" He asked.

"Please don't call me Harris." I said. "It's a long story."

"Okay, just Carman. I'm Erek King." I practically spit out my water. Actually, I almost choked on it but swallowed it.

"The Chee?!" I asked, he smiled.

"Alyssa and Josh told me you read a book series about the Animorphs."

"Where's everyone?"

"You're the fourth one free, Aly and Josh's Yeerks gave up, Cady's died an hour ago, and Alex's Yeerk is just showing signs of Kandrona starvation." Erek explained.

"Everyone else is still controllers?" I asked.

"Unfortunatly, yes. Alyssa, Josh, and Cady are somewhere. They're probably messing with their emitters.

"Emitters?" I asked. Erek stood up and walked, motioning for me to follow him. I bolted up and followed him.

"Holo emitters, you should know what the Chee do. We're going to give the seven of you holo emitters so you can infiltrate the Sharing."

"Cool, so when do I get my emitter? Oh, and sorry to ask another question, but...don't you guys infiltrate the Sharing? Why do you need us?"

"Well, we've been kind of busy lately. You guys are going to get the information, and I'm going to take it from you to the Animorphs."

"Does that mean we get to meet the Animorphs?" I asked exitedly.

"No, they'll think I got the information like I usually do. Just for your safety." We came into a big room, it was packed. Chee everywhere, working on various things. There were tons of workstations, computers, tech so far ahead of us it looked like _Star Trek_, various tools, computer parts, and metal. I followed him to a workstation. It had a computer, a few scrap pieces of metal, some tools, some tech, and a square metal container with no lid. I couldn't see inside of it, unfortunately.

"Which one?" The Chee at the workstation asked.

"Ummm...the nice one?" I answered.

"The wolf." Erek answered.. The other Chee looked inside the container, he picked up a small black box. "Thanks." Erek led me out of the room.

"Wolf?" I asked.

"Here." He handed me the box, I opened it. The charm was about an inch long and an inch wide, it was brown and white with tints of grey, very detailed, and in the shape of a wolf.

"Oh." I said.

"All you have to do is have skin contact with it, then whatever you want it to project, it'll project. It's wired to your DNA, so no one else can activate it."

"Okay." I said, putting it around my neck. It was silent for a minute, we reached the doors.

"Let's see if Alyssa, Josh, and Cady are in here. I've got to go work on a few things." Erek said, he walked away and I stepped into the park. Sure enough, the trio was laughing their heads off in the middle of the park.

"Guys!" I said, running over to them.

"Carman!" They all exclaimed, I hugged them all.

"What's yours?" Cady asked.

"Wolf." I said, showing them my charm.

"Sweet, mine's a cougar." Cady said, showing me a orange cat with some brown and white tints.

"I've got a bear." Josh said, holding up a blue bear with a bit of black and white.

"What did you get, Aly?" I asked, Aly held up a clear gorilla with a tiny bit of red in the middle.

"Ooohhh." I teased, Alyssa rolled her eyes.

"Hey, you wanna try out your emitter?" Josh asked.

"Watch this." Cady said, she brought her finger to her charm. A hologram of me appeared next to her, I would have thought it was me if I didn't know it was a hologram.

"That is so cool." I said.

"Come on, let's have some fun with it!" Alyssa said, I grinned.

"I've got an idea."


	9. Alex: Look! Animorphs!

Hello, my name is Alex. My Yeerk, Ilias 572, was just beginning to go through the faugue.

The faugue is the final moments before the Yeerk dies from starvation. My Yeerk was quiet, waiting to die, not struggling like I had thought it would.

-(The reason I am not struggling is because I am one of few Yeerks who accepts defeat. You have proven stronger than I, so I must accept that.)-

-(I had no clue that you Yeerks could accept defeat,)- I replied.

-(Humans know very little about us above-average Yeerks, thanks to the Vissers. We are scientists, we know when we are beat, we know when our efforts are fuitile, unlike Visser's one and three)-

-(So, you're saying that the smart Yeerks are wimps and the Vissers are stupid?)- I asked, confused.

-(No, not exactly. Yeerks such as myself are not 'wimps', as you said, but you were right about the Vi- OH!)-

I could feel his pain, it was horrible, mind-numbing almost.

"Hang in there, Alex, you can do it." The Yeerk opened my eyes and saw Alyssa, crouching infront of me. "Come on, Bro."

I saw Josh behind her, then Cady and Carman. I saw all of them. I focused on them.

-(Oh, kill me now! I do not want to see -!)-

It was too late to wish we didn't see it. It was a huge, red eye.

_No, don't turn this way, no no no..._ Too late to beg.

It turned and stared at me. Then, as soon as it had appeared, it disappeared. I was back in the park, back staring at Alyssa.

"It's over, Alex, it's over." She smiled. I nodded. I was still a little shaken up from seeing _it_.

"Aly?" I asked a bit shakey.

"Yeah?"

"What was that big red eye thing? It's in one of those Animorphs books." Okay, I'm not as obsessed as Audrey and Alyssa, I just liked them. She could tell me.

"Crayak? Did you see him?" She asked, wide-eyed.

I nodded.

"I did too, a big red eye thing?" Carman spoke up.

The guy that had taken me from the Yeerk pool came up.

"Well, hello Alex."

"Hi, mind untieing me?" I asked. He nodded and did as I asked.

"Alex, that's Erek. Erek King. The Chee." Aly grinned.

"No way," I looked at him. "Seriously?"

"Yeah," he smiled. "Now, let's go -"

"Hold on!" Ali grinned. "I have someone who wants to meet you."

I raised an eyebrow. "Really? A very hot blonde, perhaps?"

"Maybe," She said teasingly. "Oh Rachel!"

Huh? I looked at Alyssa and she only grinned and touched a charm on her neck. A gorilla charm. Oh I would have fun with this.

But before I could say anything, an incredible hot blonde came up from behind Cady.

"Hi Alex, I'm Rachel. Rachel Berenson." She said silkily. I think my heart stopped. No, my heart hadn't stopped, it was beating a million beats a second! Rachel Berenson!

"Hi... uh..." I stared wide-eyed. I noticed Josh trying to hide a grin, and Alyssa and Cady not looking at me. Carman had her back to me, shoulders shaking. But I didn't care.

"You're cute, you know?" She smiled and leaned towards me. I just stared. She was getting closer, closer, close enough for me to kiss. She leaned her face towards me and just as I was about to kiss her she disappeared.

"Oh I can't take it anymore!" Aly shrieked and fell to the ground, laughing.

"What the crap was that?!" I said, looking around for Rachel.

"A hologram." Josh laughed. "And you fell right for it. You didn't actually think _the_ Rachel Berenson would want to kiss you, did you?"

"Haha," I said sarcastically. "I just come out of the fague and you do this to me. How dare you! I'm offended!"

Then I tackled Aly. I knew it was her plan, and being her brother, I planned on making her pay for it.

"Hey! This means war!" She screamed and started to tickle me. I tickled back.

"Oh, get him Aly! I'll help!" I heard Carman yell and felt something ontop of me.

"Quit ganging up on me! Josh, I could use some help!" I yelled as Carman started to tickle me.

"Coming Alex!" Josh said, but I could tell he wasn't helping.

"Yo, superman, get over here!"

"Oh boy, dog pile!" I heard - Audrey?

"Audrey?" Aly asked and I got up, Carman still on my back.

"Yeah, I got through the fague just fine, I was staring at the Crayak while you five were playing wrestling." She said with mock disappointment.

"Oh, man! Carman?" Alyssa said, and I looked at her funny. What were they -

"Oh my god!" Audrey whispered. I looked in the direction she was staring and saw...

The model for Tobias from the third book.

"TOBIAS!!!" She screamed.

"No, stop it Aly." I whispered.

"Oh, shut up, we're just having a bit of fun." Ali winked.

"She's gonna be mad," I said, and then I went behind Carman, very slowly and unoticed, and pulled the necklace from her hands. Tobias disappeared.

"Hey!" Audrey yelled. "Where'd he go?"

"He was never really there. Aly did the same thing to me. These necklaces are magic or something." I explained.

Her eyes darkened, then she laughed. "Good one Aly. I'll have to remember this." She had an evil look in her eyes, and I was scared.

"Okay, if we're done pulling silly pranks, I need to give Alex and Audrey their emitters." Erek said, surprising us all by apearing behind us.

"You mean the necklaces?" Audrey asked. He nodded

"Yep, come on, you two." We followed him.

"Hey Alex," Audrey leaned over and whispered. "Who is that dude?"

"Erek King, the Chee." I said. Her eyes went wide.

We went into a building, and it was full of Chee and machines and other stuff. Erek led us to a little workstation that had a pc, very far ahead of Human technology, a few pieces of metel and a lidless box.

A Chee was stationed there. "Which one?"

"Which one what?" I asked.

"What design to you want. Oh wait, I already know which one Audrey wants." Erek said, and the other Chee handed him a black box. Erek gave it to Audrey, and she opened it.

"Oh cool!" She said and took out a black-with-gray-detail colored hawk. It was posed to look like it was swooping down on it's prey. She put it around her neck.

"Okay, Alex, which one?" Erek asked.

"Umm... you got a Buffalo?"

"No, but we have a Bison. That work?"

"Sure," I replied and the Chee gave Erek another black box. Erek gave the box to me, and I opened it to see a emerald green bison that had white detailing.

"Awesome!" I said and took it out.

"Oh, I like the colors." Audrey said.

"Yeah, now, let's get out of here." Erek said and we followed him back to where the others were.

On the way back he explained how to use them, and when we got back to the others one of the Chee said that Katherine's Yeerk had begun to go through the faugue, so he left. Alyssa went with him.

"What'd you get?" Cady asked.

"I got a hawk!" Audrey said.

"I got a bison." I said.

"Well, let's see 'em!" Carman came over and looked at it. "Wow, nice colors."

"Yeah, I like it." I said, and she went to look at Audrey's.

"Ali told them you'd want a hawk." Carman said.

"Yeah, and I love the colors!" Audrey replied.

"They're pretty cool." Cady said. She held up her own necklace. "I got a cougar."

Josh held his up. "Bear."

"Wolf." Carman said as she held hers up.

"And Aly got a _gorilla_," I said suggestively.

"Oh, I've already planned revenge on the whole Tobias thing. And you guys had better not warn her." She rubbed her hands together maniacally. "Hahaha"

We walked over to where they had put Kat, and she was just beginning to go through the faugue.


	10. Kat: It All Started

(What? No resistance? I'm surprised at you Kat.) Essilas sneered.

(It's futile.) I answered.

(Glad to see you've finally realized that you can't beat me)

(I can't. But they can.) I said. All my friends stood next to me, along with another boy around our age.

"It's going to start soon." Cady said, smiling nervously. And then it started.

(UUUUGGHHHHH!) We screamed. The pain, it was horrible. My body cringed, everyone adopted worried expressions.

"It's okay, the pain will be worth it." Alex said.

"You'll be free, Kat." Josh said.

"Just sit back and watch the Yeerk die." Carman said. "I found it helps if you distance yourself from the pain." I tried to do as she said, it worked like a charm. It was really weird, I  
was still in my own head, I knew my body was cringing and I knew I was experiencing pain. And yet I didn't feel it.

"Here it comes." Aly said.

(Here what comes?) I asked.

(The Crayak) Essilas answered.

(AHHH!) I screamed, a big red eye appeared in front of me. I was feeling the pain again, I felt my body cringing again. Then it stopped. Everything just stopped. The eye disappeared, and it was all peaceful. Except for the yelling.

"Audrey!"

"What?"

"Don't squish it! Let Kat do it!"

"But-"

"No buts missy!"

(SMACK)

"Hey! That hurt!"

"All of you just SHUT UP!"

"Fine o fearless leader."

"Alex?!"

"Sorry, he's just acting like Jake."

"We have our own version of Jake, sweet."

"You guys are so immature."

"We're sorry we don't have as much insight as you Cady."

"I mean Kat's still lying here unconscious and you guys are arguing over who gets to squish the Yeerk."

"But it's important to us!"

"She's got a point."

"Fiiiinnnee. Jake."

"Stop calling me that!"

"Kat? Kat?" My eyes opened. I was lying on my back, the chair had tipped backwards, the boy from earlier was standing over me. "You okay?"

"Umm...Yeah.." I said shakily, he began to untie me.

"I'm Erek." He said, holding out a hand. I took it and he lifted me up.

"You obviously already know me." I said.

"The others told me. Speaking of which, if you know of any way to shut them up, feel free to do it anytime." Erek said.

"The trick is, to get their attention to you." I said. "Of course I'll marry you Tobias!" Erek caught on easily.

"Oh I love you Rachel!" He yelled.

"What?!" Everyone yelled.

"See? They love Animorphs. It's a good bait." I said.

"Kat!" Alex groaned.

"I did that for a reason! You guys need some chill pills." Audrey and Aly gave each other a look, they just looked at each other for a few minutes, then yelled.

"Chill out dude tablets! You are now the proud owner of a brand new Jake!" Then burst out laughing.

"Congratulations! You just bought a Jake! The newest and most responsible member of your family!" Audrey said.

"Any attempt to take the Escafil device will result in immediate death. We are not responsible for any funeral costs." Aly said, then the two of them burst out laughing again. Erek looked so confused, the rest of us just shook our heads.

"Get used to it." I said.

"You know, I'll just give it to you now." Erek said.

"Give what?" I asked.

"Long story. Follow me." He said, I did. He explained to me who he was, our - our meaning us and the Chee - mission, and what I needed to know about Yeerks, Hork-Bajir, and Taxxons.

"Here." He said, we arrived at a metal workbench.

"The last one eh?" The Chee behind the desk said, he gave Erek a black box. We walked back into the hall, Erek gave me the box. Inside was a pink butterfly necklace.

"Oohh." I said.

"It's a holo emitter." Erek explained how it worked, I put it on, and we came to the park doors.

"I've got some stuff to do, your friends are still in there." He said, I walked through the doors. Everyone was sitting on the ground in a circle, I have no clue what they were doing.

"Hey guys." I said, Cady and Carman made room for me in-between them. Next to Carman was Audrey, who was next to Aly, who was next to Alex, who was next to Josh, who was next to Cady, which brings us back to me.

"Just in time." Audrey said.

"Time for what?" I asked.

"We're going to tell you what to expect." Josh said.

"We were explaining it to Cady when you got here." Alex said.

"Explaining what? Erek told me about the Yeerks, Taxxons, and Hork-Bajir." I said.

"We're going to explain to you the Animorphs." Aly said.

"And what we know about Andilites." Carman added.

"Erek mentioned those, aren't they the good aliens?" I asked.

"Yeah." Josh answered.

"Oh, and we'll tell you more about the Yeerks, Taxxons, and Hork-Bajir." Audrey said.

"We could just lend them the books." Alex said.

"Or we could just tell them. We have nothing else to do. Erek's not briefing us for another four hours." Carman said.

"Okay, it all started at an abandoned construction site." Josh said.

"No it didn't!" Audrey protested.

"It started with Seerow!" Carman joined in.

"It started with the Hork-Bajir Chronicles." Aly said, Audrey, Carman, and Alex laughed.

"Okay fine. Who wants to tell the story of Seerow's Kindness?" Josh asked.

"I'll do it." Alex said. "It really started, with an Andilite named Seerow."


	11. Audrey: Secrets

**CHAPTER TEN: AUDREY**

"His mom? His own _mother_?" Cady exclaimed. Josh, Alex, Aly, Carman, and I were explaining _Animorphs #30 The Reunion_ to Cady and Kat.

"Well, yeah, pretty much." I said.

"It was actually a very sad book." Aly said.

"Sad?! He was ruthless!" Josh exclaimed.

"So was Jake in the Consipiracy." Alex said, and waited a few seconds before adding: "Fearless leader."

"WILL YOU SHUT UP WITH THAT!" Josh exclaimed.

"Aly, calm your boyfriend down." Carman said, Aly looked at her with a confused expression.

"Huh?" She asked.

"Yeah, huh?" Josh asked, looking at Carman with a 'where did that come from?' expression.

"You kissed him last week!" Carman exclaimed.

"To make Shay jealous." Aly said.

Okay, let me explain: Carman's foster family, the Harris', have five kids, plus Carman. Laura's the oldest girl, at 18, and very smart. Also very perfect. Shay's 16, and is Super-Snob. Joseph is 15 and dubs himself a 'ladies-man' though he's about as cute and charming as a maggot. Then Brent, who is thirteen and is a bully. Kelsie is the youngest, at ten, and is a mini-Shay. And the whole family hates Carman, and we all hate them. We would have taken her from there a long time ago, but if we got found out her foster parents would ship her across the world. I mean, I don't even know why they let her stay there. Oh, wait, it's because they need someone who can do their laundry, clean their house, cook their food, and without having to be paid! Their so rich they could afford a maid, but no, they had to get a foster child so they could keep their money in their greedy little un-worked hands! Okay, I'm getting mean, so let's get back on subject.

"I asked you to so she would leave me alone at the party!" Josh exclaimed, giving Aly a look.

"Well that's not the only reason I did it." Aly shot back.

"Come on Aly, we all know you're not that kind of girl." I said.

"She's been...suspicous of me lately." Aly said, then looked at Carman. "She saw us talking backstage."

"She WHAT?!" Carman exclaimed.

"Why make her jealous? Just even more reason to tattle about you talking to Carman." Alex asked.

"Because, when she's jealous of someone because of a guy, she won't say anything, because it makes her look bad to the guy." Kat said, like it was obvious.

"Yeah, and since Josh is with a different girl every month, she knows the Aly will be last month's girl eventually." I said, Josh stared at me with his mouth open. Everyone else laughed.

"What?!" Josh asked.

"She's right. You've dated every girl in this circle except Carman." Cady said.

"And that's only because if she's socially accepted her foster family will ship her off to the other side of the planet." Aly said.

"You went out with Audrey?" Alex asked, looking at Josh weird.

"Just once. And it was a Shay thing." Josh said.

"SEE? YOU HAVE!" Kat exclaimed.

"Not to mention the other girls at school." Aly said.

"Ugh...school." Josh said, making a face.

"Oh yeah...you're moving today." I said. "You're allegedly at Nick's."

"OH SNAP!" Aly exclaimed. "Nick!"

"You're right! We were supposed to go straight there after the arcade!" Carman said. "He's probably freaking out!"

"Your brother-in-law? He _is_ freaking out." Erek came up to us. "But it's okay, we'll send Chee over there-"

"No." Aly said, Erek raised his holographic eyebrows. "I want _us_ to go back."

"I'm with her." Alex said.

"And...if we're allowed...I want to tell him where we were."

"WHAT?!" All the rest of us - except Alex and Erek - exclaimed.

"See...there's a lot of things you guys don't know." Alex said. "About Nick. Well...about our family."

"Remember when Karen dissappeared?" Aly asked. "_Karen_."

"Oh my word, Karen is..._your_ Karen...your _neice_ Karen, is in the books! Wait, did she actually meet...?" I asked.

"Cassie? Uh-huh." Alex said. "Aly and I talked to her for like, a minute, and saw Jake."

"Really?" Carman asked exitedly.

"Hey, let them continue the story." Josh said, shushing us.

"Fearless leader." Alex said under his breath, Josh shot him a look.

"Anyway," Aly said loudly, nudging her brother. "Okay, for about two years Nick had been telling us that our sister Alana seemed..well..different."

"She wouldn't come see us anymore. Not even mom and dad. He said she'd been forgetting stuff, and about a year later Karen started forgetting stuff too. She acted normally most of the time, and just forgot a lot of things. Even her favorite color. Alana was the same, except she acted much weirder." Alex said. "Then Nick rushes in one day, on the verge of tears, telling us that Karen's gone missing."

"And Nick was too freaked out then to notice that mom and dad weren't worried, they acted it all right, but I could tell they genuinely didn't care." Aly said.

"Then there was this one moment that they looked like they wanted to strangle him if he wouldn't shut up about Karen." Alex said. "He said he didn't want the Sharing to help, don't remember why though, but mom and dad were all for it. We knew by then, because they'd been talking about the Sharing for the past month, that our parents might be controllers. And when this came along...it just confirmed our suspicions."

"So Alex distracts mom and dad, Nick fakes an exit, and I lock Nick and I in my room and explain what's going on." Aly said. "I scanned the book, and found how long they were out there. So on that third day, we went out there. And sure enough, over our heads, five birds of prey."

"Aly was so exited to see them, and later, when Karen came back, Cassie was with her. We got to talk to her for a minute or two. All Aly could get out was thank you." Alex said, Aly rolled her eyes.

"Then later, when Cassie was near us, we heard her call Jake, so we all turn around." Aly said, Erek had sat down, we were all mesmerized by the story. "And let me tell you, he was _cute_."

"He better be." Kat said, during the chat about Animorphs she'd taken a liking to Jake.

"We only got to see him." Alex said. "Now, in the book, Cassie sees Karen with her mother, right?"

"Yeah, go on." I said.

"Well, the last time anyone saw her, she walked into a dressing room at the Gap, and never came out." Aly said. "Fortunately, Cady was at the mall and found her."

"I remember that. The poor girl was scared to death." Cady said. "She told me that Alana had told her to go away. I took her home. Nick was kind of fidgety when I mentioned the part about Alana. He got a bit nervous too."

"After that he told us, and we gathered that Alana was a controller. But as to why she forgot things, and wasn't as smooth as the other controllers, we found out a couple of days ago, when Erek kiddnapped us." Alex said.

"It's genetic." Aly said. "You know why my Yeerk left? He only pretended to be self-preserving, he wanted _out_ and fast. He couldn't read all my memories, and I didn't do a thing."

"Hmm..A hereditary resistance. I've never heard about that before." Erek said, looking at Aly with intense interest. "And Alex's Yeerk could read his memories because he's adopted."

"Exactly. And being a normal controller isn't exactly easy." Alex said, looking at Aly, who smiled innocently.

"That explains why Karen and Alana were forgetting things, the Yeerks couldn't access certain areas." Josh said. "One of your parents had to have it or at least carry it."

"I don't know which one. Neither of them show the signs Alana and Karen had. Well, I can't be sure. One _might_ have it...I have been trying to distance myself from them..." Aly said.

"Mom." Alex said. "Dad will constantly be reminding her of things. Mom's showing the signs."

"Nice Alex, for once you paid attention and Aly didn't." Kat teased.

"That doesn't make sense." Erek said. "With something like that, that's not possible. It's like four generations all having cancer. It's not right."

"Maybe this disease is different, but it could be just a coincidence." Cady said, then an idea came to mind.

"Or it could be the Ellimist." I said.

"We'll never know I guess." Carman said, Erek's hologram showed a flicker of exitement, and an idea.

"There is a way." Erek said. "Depends on the traits of this resistance, that I can give it to all of you. With Aly's permission, of course."

"I dunno. What will have to be done?" Aly asked. "If it involves needles, I'm sorry, no."

"It doesn't have to involve needles. There are other ways, a little more complicated, but still." Erek said. "If there's something we can't change that you don't like, you can just stop."

"I guess I will, sure." Aly said, Erek looked like he'd just won the lottery.

"You know what, if you want, why don't you guys start now? We can finish informing Cady and Kat." Carman said. "Wait..Erek has to brief us."

"Actually, I figured you might know." Erek said. "All we know is, the World Summit is Friday, and the Yeerks are definitely going to try to get some powerful hosts."

"The World Summit?" Aly asked, thinking. "That would be...oohh...That's not good."

"Wha-" I started, but then realized what she meant. "Oh no."

"We can't just let the trilogy happen, we've got to do something about it." Josh said.

"We could warn them before it happens or something, just anything to keep it from happening." Alex said.

"No. No warning. We just take him." Carman said. "And before the Summit. We just go ahead and trap him before the Animorphs can."

"Will someone tell us what's going on?" Cady asked.

"What happens that's so bad? Who the crap are you talking about? And what's he going to do?" Kat asked.

"He's going to screw up this mission, that's what." I said.

"And the Summit is a trap for the Animorphs. The real Summit is Saturday." Alex said.

"He's also going to hurt the Animorphs." Carman said.

"And bad." Josh said.

"He's going to make them wish they weren't who they were. Play on their weaknesses." Aly said.

"Once again, who the crap are you talking about?" Kat asked.

"David."


	12. Alyssa: David's return

**Okay, this is a little jumpy. DAVID HAS ARRIVED!!!!**

"Got it, so all I have to do is get David here, and everything will go as planned?" Erek asked.

"You can't do that." Alex shook his head. "You're programmed not to do violence. David will succomb to some violence."

"You're going to need us." Kat said.

"Are you kidding?!" Audrey exclaimed. "We can't take down David! He can morph!"

"I can do it." Carman said. Her expression was detirmined and strong, she sat straight. "I have a way, but you guys have to trust me on this."

"Nothing that would get you hurt?" Josh asked.

"I'm going to be fighting David, there's a chance." Carman said, Josh thought for a minute.

"All right, someone's got to get David's attention, get him in a place that's large enough Carman won't be slammed into walls, but secluded." Josh said. "Alyssa, Kat, that's your job."

"Why me?" I asked.

"Because, Audrey's too aggressive." Josh said, Audrey smiled. "Carman's fighting, and I've got something for Cady to do."

"Why can't I do what Cady's doing?" I asked.

"Because, she doesn't know the Animorphs." Josh said, then looked at Cady. "You're going to keep the Animorphs distracted while we take David."

"Oh, that's good, okay." Cady nodded, though her mind was obviously elsewhere.

"Cady? You all right?" Kat asked. "What's on your mind?"

"Nothing, just reminded me of something." Cady shook her head, then looked at Josh. "How am I going to do that?"

"Pretend to be Erek." Josh smirked. "Just tell them what we know about the summit."

"Problem," Erek said, now standing, and crossing his arms. "I've already told them."

"Just an update then." Josh said. "The real summit is Saturday, and the one Friday is a trap for them."

"So, again, why can't I do what Cady's doing?" I asked.

"Because Cady will keep her cool seeing the Animorphs." Josh said. "The rest of us know them, and Kat freaks when she sees a cute guy."

"JOSH!" Kat exclaimed, rolling her eyes. We laughed. "But seriously, what happens if he gets agressive with us?"

"He shouldn't." Josh said. "I hate to put you two up to this, but you're going to have to be charming."

"I have to FLIRT with DAVID?!" I exclaimed, mouth hanging open, Josh closed his eyes momentarily.

"I'm sorry, but yeah, pretty much." He said, I groaned and fell on my back in the grass.

"So, what're Alex, you, Erek, and I supposed to do?" Audrey asked.

"You and Alex." Josh said. "Are the two most agressive in our group, so, if Carman needs help, you're going to be the ones stepping in."

"Nice." Alex said, nodding.

"We get to beat up David." Audrey said, smiling.

"Erek's going to get everything ready for David." Josh said. "When he's disarmed, or unconcious, or in any way unable to fight, mid-morph would be perfect, he's going to throw him in a truck or something."

"So he's going to throw him in a prison that will hold a lion?" Audrey asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, and then we'll take him here, and I guess just keep him locked up." Josh said, looking up at Erek. Who was nodding with his arms crossed, he looked impressed, he was smiling.

"I knew I picked the right people." He said. "Alex is right though, Josh, you are a lot like Jake."

"Yeah, that plan of yours? Nice, though I'm positive - and I'm not just saying this 'cause I'm mad - that he would have left out the flirting." I said.

"He would have." Josh said. "But if he had, Rachel would have to do it, not that I'm saying she's not pretty, but he wouldn't go out for Cassie."

"I agree." Alex said. "But Rachel's the fighter, so he'd have a conflict on his hands."

"Just dress Cassie up." I said. "Or have her morph Rachel, Cassie aquired her in The Reaction."

"That's twelve, isn't it?" Alex asked. "The one where she has an allergic reaction to the crocodile?"

"Yeah. Hey, how come you don't remember most of the books, but remember one of the early ones?" I asked.

"It's a Rachel book, Aly." Audrey said, laughing.

"Josh, what're you supposed to do?" Carman asked.

"That." Josh said. "I have yet to figure out."

"Why don't you just watch? If something goes wrong, alert the others." Kat suggested.

"And if we need help, just go to Cady, Rachel and Marco will be glad to help, probably Ax, and maybe even Tobias." I said.

"I guess so." Josh shrugged. "I feel like I'm making you do all the work."

"You are." Audrey said. "But you came up with the plan, so that's doing your part." Josh nodded.

"Can we do this now? We've got nothiing else to do and I'm already up on adrenaline." Carman said, Josh looked at Erek.

"I guess, sure." He said.

"Well." I said, standing up. "Sorry to steal your dream girl's line, Alex but...Let's do it."

-::-

"I can't believe I said I would do this." I complained, Kat rolled her eyes. We were walking through the mall, and I was completely confused. I had never been to this mall before, so I had no clue where I was going. Erek had to tell me how to get to the mall. He said we were in Clear Creek, California. Which was where Cady lived, but she didn't know anyone here, because she only moved here a year ago, she was homeschooled last year, and she usually was up in Oregon with us. Audrey would move here in two months, Josh's family was moving here this weekened, while he was allegedly at my brother-in-law's, heck, we were all alledgedly there. I knew Nick wouldn't call the police, too many controllers. Still, I was nervous about just leaving him clueless.

"It's all right, just pray he's cute, so it will be easier." Kat said, I sighed.

"Fine." I said, then stopped. "If we don't know what he looks like, how're we supposed to find him?" She stopped too.

"That's not good." She said. "Look for Cady, or should I say, Erek." I did, I found her, near the cinnabon.

"I see her." I said. "That's a cinnabon, never in my life have I been to a cinnabon. Man, those cinnamon buns look good." Kat rolled her eyes.

"Just come on." She said, walking over. Fortunately, Cady was alone.

"Problem." I whispered. "We don't know what he looks like."

"Ask Josh to help, they're coming over." She whispered, I sighed as we moved away.

"Josh could be anywhere or anyone." I said.

"Or I could just be sitting here." I turned around, Josh was sitting at a table with Alex - who was sipping a milkshake. But I knew good and well that Alex was with Audrey and Carman, and that could only be Erek.

"Oh." Kat said, Josh laughed, Erek stopped sipping the milkshake.

"He's in the video game store." He said. "Just look for a young, blonde guy."

"Right. So easy to find." I said sarcastically.

"Aly." Josh said. "You'll know which one is him, trust me. I can see him from here."

"Okay, fine." Kat said, we walked toward the video game store. As we walked, I got happier. "What's up with you?"

"It's the video game store!" I exclaimed. "I can see how much Gears of War costs." Kat rolled her eyes, we entered the store. While she was bored out of her mind following me around, I was having fun. Kat looked for David, looking like I had dragged her in here, and she wanted someone to talk to.

"You found that cogs of war or whatever it is?" Kat asked, I turned around.

"It's not cogs it's gears. And yes, I see it over there." I said, I looked at the price. I still had some money left from the mall a few days ago, I had enough for it. I picked it up, but at the same time as another hand. I looked over, grabbing the box, was a blonde haired, brown eyed boy. I knew it was David, there was something in his eyes that just screamed 'stay away'. Even though he looked at me with interest. He let go. I had seen him before, and he had obviously recognized me. I had known the David. The David. It is a small world.

"Sorry." He said, though he didn't sound sorry. "I don't have enough for it anyway."

"Oh, well, thanks." I said, picking up the box. He looked at me weird. "What? Never seen a girl buy a good war game before?"

"Actually, yes." He said, then looked at me curiously again. "I've seen you before somewhere."

"Cady Roberts?" I asked, his eyes got wide.

"Aly."

"Uh-huh."

"What're you doing down here?"

"Visiting Nick, he lives down here." I said. "Cady moved here a year ago, and Josh's moved down here yesterday. What about you? Thought you were in Montana?"

"I was." David said. "I moved here less than a year ago. How come I didn't see Cady in school?"

"She's homeschooled. Christine and Derek too, by serious protests of Christine." I said, he laughed.

"Yeah, that's Christine." He said, I walked toward the counter. "Figures, you're one of the only girls I know who would buy Gears of War."

"And who else is there?"

"Audrey and Carman." I laughed and bought the game.

"Finally, you got your game, can we leave this store?" Kat asked, coming up to me, then looked at David oddly. Her eyes widened, she knew that was the David we were looking for, and another David. "David."

"Kat?" David asked, Kat nodded. "Is everyone here?"

"Josh might be, but other than that, no one." Kat said, David nodded.

"So, you guys eaten lunch yet?" He asked.

"Yeah, but you don't look like you can buy lunch." I said, knowing his parents were already controllers.

"Actually, I can't." He said. "But I'm not really hungry so-"

"No." I said quickly. "You look like you really need some food. We'll get you something, come on." He looked like he wanted to protest, but I gave him a look, he nodded. We walked toward the food court, I saw Josh pull out his emitter, while David was talking to Kat, and all the food court lines were filled. I shook my head and mouthed 'Levine'. He stopped, and mouthed back to me, I nodded. He shook his head, I sighed, then nodded reluctantly. David whistled when he saw the holographic lines.

"It's four o clock on a Thursday, school just got out. It's normal to have a bunch of people here." Kat said.

"Let's try the Taco Bell across the street, mexican sounds good." I said nervously, David looked at me weird, then nodded. We started walking out of the food court, Josh walking behind and to the right of us. Erek was no longer with him, he was in place already. I didn't want to do this to David, he used to be the eighth guy in our group, but he moved away two years ago. Cady has yet to get over it, he and Cady had this...thing, going before he left. We left the mall, and stood at the crosswalk, waiting.

"I'm thinking taco, what about you?" David asked.

"Chicken wrap, definitely." Kat said, trying to keep his suspicion down. She was perfectly calm, I, however, was getting nervous. I was going to be as nice as possible to him before we had to do this to him. And I would only say things I meant, which would lower David's suspicion of me. He already trusted me, but it had been a while, he wasn't sure if I had changed. I needed him to trust me completely, and I was trying to stop asking myself if it was fair to make him trust me fully, if I didn't trust him back. I did trust him, but after learning who he was, I wasn't sure.

"Aly? You still with us?" Kat asked, the light said 'walk', we did.

"Yeah, sorry." I said, David knew gazing off into space was normal for me. We reached the Taco Bell, I took a deep breath.

"Expecting something?" David asked, I couldn't take it, I had to get him to go with us quietly.

"David." I said. "Please, just trust me on this."

"Aly..." He said, he looked at Kat, whose nervousness now surfaced. "What's going on?"

"Someone's following us." Kat said, out of the corner of my eye I saw Josh change into a man in about his twenties, he head her, and she was covering for me. "It's been like this for days, we don't know how to get rid of him!" I couldn't bear to listen to her, she was such a good liar, and I don't mean that in a good way.

"Kat." I said, pointing to Josh's hologram. David took a deep breath.

"You want me to trust you? You're going to have to trust me." David said. "I've got a place, but you're going to just have to bear with me."

"Okay." Kat said, she let her nervousness show, I did too. Right then, I could let all my emotions show. I was distraught that I would have to lead him to such a brutal trap - hey, if Carman's idea could take down a lion, it had to be brutal. But the Animorphs would be saved a lot of trouble, and we weren't killing him. And I'd have plenty of time to explain it to him while he was locked up in the Chee faucility.

"Follow me." David said, we followed him to the woods behind the Taco Bell, where we wanted him to go. Somewhere, Alex, Audrey, and Carman were hiding. But if I could help it, he'd go down without a fight. Once we got deep enough...I almost stopped him, but remembered it was for his own good. The thoughts of him and the other Animorphs filled my mind. It's for them, it's for them. We were deep in the forest now, the sounds of the people and places were distant, I wondered how long it would be before we got to Cassie's woods.

SNARL We turned around, a cheetah glared at David. And at David alone, he looked at it uncertantly. A cheetah? They've got holo-emitters, can't they be more creative than that? I looked at the cheetah, it was beautiful, a rustic orange-brown coat, black spots, little bits of white around them, focused eyes, lowered, ready to pounce.

"Anyone have any idea why a cheetah's in the middle of the woods in California?" David asked.

"I know you know." Kat said, rounding on him. David looked at her with a fierce expression. I saw something in his eyes, they changed color. Kat was too busy glaring back to notice. His eyes were no longer a brown, but almost black.

"That's not David anymore." I said, David whirled around and glared at me. Kat looked at me quizically. "His eyes, they're gray now."

"Smart." David sneered. "The Ellimist may have you now, but you will be on my side sooner than you think."

"Crayak?"

(Crayak? That's too weird, even for me, and trust me, I am very weird.) I slowly turned around, watching David. When I was fully turned, I made sure he was beside me, and I could see him.

"Carman?" I asked uncertantly.

(What?) She joked. (I'll explain later, right now, he's the one who needs to explain.) She growled at him. (Audrey, Alex, I'm gonna need you sooner or later.) She said privately.

(Preferrably sooner, Audrey's itching to try out this morph, and I'm the only visible prey in sight. I really don't want to be eaten by Audrey) Alex said.

(Oh shut up!) Audrey exclaimed. (I'm controlling myself just fine!)

(You're pacing, and you're shooting me wild looks)

"What are you doing with David?" Kat asked, getting us focused.

"I am merely...making a few choices for him." The Crayak smiled.

"It wasn't David who destroyed the Animorphs, it was you!" Kat exclaimed.

"But this time's different." I said. "We're here."

"Yes, you are." Crayak said. "But what makes is so different? A lion can defeat a cheetah easily."

(I don't know about that. I've had more experience with this morph than all of David's morphs put together.) Carman sneered. (You're a Yeerk right now, but just a little different. You only know what he knows, which is the result of the rules in the game)

"Yes." Crayak said, he started morphing. "But the lion knows what to do." I looked away, it was already getting nasty, Kat did too.

(He's in mid-morph! Do we call Erek?) Alex asked. David's eyes closed, I shook my head. His eyes opened again, he knew we were too good to attack during morphing, so he took his time with it. Which was good for us.

(Aly said no) Carman said. (Cause of the Crayak, right?)

(I get it) Audrey said. (He's not evil, but the Crayak is. So if we can get rid of the Crayak, we can let David go back to the Animorphs)

(Okay, so how do we get rid of him?) Alex asked.

(Not now! He's finished morphing!) Carman exclaimed, she pounced, I backed up, Kat did too. David was on his back, Carman on top of him, slashing at him. David slashed her side, and took the moment to push her off him, he got up. Carman was on her side, on the ground. She was standing up, but she wouldn't get up in time. I was racking my brain for something, anything, that could get him off her.

(That's it! We finish this now!)

ROAR Another lion pounced in on top of David, throwing him off balance. It slashed harder than Carman had, it was stronger. David had gotten hurt, and the other lion was winning.

(Hold back! Don't kill him! Get control of the lion before you kill him!) Alex yelled, as a huge american bison trudged into the area.

(UGH! This stupid lion! I hit his head! He's bleeding too bad!) Audrey exclaimed.

(Get off him for starters) Alex said, looking down at Carman, whose chest was heaving, so she was alive. Halelujah on that one. Audrey stepped back, coming to stand beside me.

(It's better than I expected, morphing I mean.) She said privately. (But this lion is seriously angry. Another lion in his turf? Uh-uh.)

"Oh my word! Look at that!" Kat said, kneeling next to the unconcious lion. His head was split open on one side, he wouldn't last long. Audrey shyed away behind me, I patted her on the head.

(Thanks Aly, wow...that felt cool) Audrey said, after I scratched in between her ears. Hey, she's a cat, right?

"We've got to call Erek!" Kat said.

(Maybe we don't.) Alex said. (While he's unconcious we can force Crayak out...is that possible?)

"No." Carman came up, looking down at David. Seeing the look on my face she added: "It's okay, Aly, David was hurt worse."

(She's right) Audrey said. (The only way to get him out is to hold him for three days, even then we have to call Erek. But I don't think the Crayak needs Kandrona rays)

(If the Crayak took him over, he must have been good. So he must have been the on the Ellimist's side.) Alex said. (He must have made a way to free David)

YES, BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO FIGURE IT OUT ON YOUR OWN

There was no Ellimist, just the voice.

(This is the Ellimist, think good!) Audrey said. (Umm..there's love.)

"We'll need Cady." Kat joked.

(Cady. You done? We need you.) Alex called. (Hey, no use in not trying.)

"Good point." Carman said. "Anything else? Umm...trust?"

"Loyalty?" Kat asked.

"Who did that?" Josh asked, I turned. He and Cady were standing there, looking at David. Audrey shyed behind me more, I rested my hand on her head.

(I did) Audrey said. (I'm sorry...lion is not a good iea for a first morph. I couldn't get control, but it's all right now, I'm sorry)

"It's okay, we know he'll be unconcious for a while." Josh said.

"He can't make it long, we have to get him to demorph." Kat said. "But we have to get the whatever it is out of him first."

"Crayak." Carman corrected, she turned to a confused Josh. "Long story."

(He's like a Yeerk, and the Ellimist said - once again long story - that there is a way to free him. And at first we though love, so we called Cady.) Audrey said.

"You mean that's my David dying on the ground?!" Cady exclaimed, Audrey sunk behind me more.

(Look, Cady. You're gonna have to tell him you love him or something, because if you just had to do it, I'm sure that he would be free by now.) Alex said.

"And you've got to mean it." Kat said, standing up. Cady sat down in her place, looking nervous and scared. She bent down, whispering something in his ear. Nothing happened.

"Try trust. Someone say they trust him!" Carman exclaimed. I knew she didn't trust him after him hurting her, she was trying, but she couldn't. Cady bent down again, nothing happened. We tried everything within those few minutes.

"I'm sorry, I can't think of anything else." Kat said, Alex and Audrey had already demorphed. According to Carman, he only had ten minutes left in morph - how she knew that I have no clue - and we had run out of ideas.

"Kat, that just gave me an idea." I said, smiling. "Cady, tell him you forgive him! Tell him you're sorry for blaming him, and you forgive him!" Cady nodded, bending down, I heard her.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. "I was just mad that you were leaving, and it's not your fault. I forgive you, David." She leaned back, he started to demorph.

"Come on." Josh said. "Let's go, we can't be here when he wakes up." We backed away, Kat took Cady's hand, she went with us. I stopped when he couldn't see us, but we could see him. He sat up, his eyes were brown. I smiled.

"Cady, you did it." Audrey said. "And I'm sorry."

"I forgive you for it." Cady said, smiling.

"Come on, Erek's waiting." Josh said.

**Okay, if you're a little confused we'll explain all of it later. REVIEW, PEOPLE, REVIEW!**


	13. Aftermath and the Grand Scheme of Things

I was following Audrey and Alyssa when we came into Erek's house. Audrey just jumped into the house.

"Oh my gooseness! We did it!" She cried, jumping once. "We totally saved the Animorphs!"

"And we totally kicked Crayak's big-red-butt!" Alyssa joined in.

"Are they always like this?" I turned and there stood Mr. King, the Chee pretending to be Erek's father.

I nodded. "Yep, that's our Aly and Audrey."

"And I have to live with that one!" Alex said, pointing to Aly, who was holding Audrey's hands. They were both twirling each other around and circles.

"We feel so sorry for you." Erek said, coming into the room.

"What. Are. They. Doing?!" Cady asked, shocked at seeing the two girls dancing to no music.

"I dunno," Carman said. "But I wanna do it too!" With that she ran and joined in.

"Oh brother," Kat said, rolling her eyes. "Ya'll are crazy."

"So," Erek said. "I'm guessing that since they're dancing that the mission was a success?"

"Yep," Aly said, starting to jump. Soon Carman and Audrey started jumping too. "And I got Gears of War!"

"Gears of War?" Alex asked. "I am so borrowing that!"

"Nuh-uh!" Alyssa said. "Mine all mine! You can't have it!"

"Back on subject, people." I spoke.

"Yeah, it was total slaughter." Audrey said. "We totally taught Crayak what for!"

"Yeah, and you almost slaughtered David too." Cady murmured. Audrey stopped jumping and stared at her.

"Look, I've said it before, lion was not a good first morph, okay?" She said.

"I know, it's just..." Cady trailed off.

"You still like him." Kat said.

"No!" Cady objected quickly. "Well, maybe a little..." We stared at her. "Okay, maybe alot!" She admitted. "I really missed him when he left."

"And you know what?" Alex asked. "We saved him from a terrible fate to live as a rat for the rest of his little rat life until he went to little rat heaven."

"That's true!" Carman said energetically.

"Okay, glad to hear it." Erek said. "Come on, let's go down."

**-::-David-::-**

"Okay, I have a question." Marco raised his hand. "Does anyone know what he is going on about?"

Okay, let me explain: He is me, David, and all of us were in Cassie's barn. Marco, Cassie, Rachel, Tobias, Ax, Jake, and I.

"Sorry, but I'm as lost as everybody else." Cassie was saying. I rolled my eyes.

"Look, I swear, a cheetah, a buffalo, and a lion attacked me! Right outside the Taco Bell!" I yelled. "And then all I see is Cady, and she's saying she forgives me, and then I'm with you guys."

"Cady?" Rachel asked. "Cady who?"

"She was a girlfriend of mine back when I lived in Oregon." I said. "The day I moved I knew nothing about it until I got home from school, she walked up, saw the moving truck, and walked off."

(Harsh.) Tobias commented.

"Okay, all we know is that a cheetah, a lion, and a buffalo attacked you." Jake said. "And it wasn't us. You're the only one with a lion morph, David."

"Most definatley not us." Marco said. "I mean, buffalo? How lame!"

"Hey, he didn't look so lame up close!" I argued.

"I say we ask Erek about it." Rachel said.

"What, no blowing something up?" Marco asked. She whopped him on the head.

"Shut up, midget." She said. "If anyone would have any answers, it'll be Erek."

(Rachel is correct.) Ax said.

"Oh mystic Erek, we wish to know why someone would pick a buffalo as a battle morph!" Marco began chanting. "Ahummmm."

"Come on, Marco." Jake said, rolling his eyes."Cassie? David? Tobias? You three haven't cast your votes yet."

"I agree, let's find Erek." Cassie said.

"Yeah," I aswered.

(I'll fly ahead and find him.) Tobias said and flew out of the barn.

"Okay, let's go." Jake said, and we all morphed bird. Cassie and Marco to Osprey, Jake to Peregrin Falcon, Ax to Northern Harrier, Rachel to Bald Eagle, and I to my Golden Eagle. As we flew, I couldn't get Cady's face out of my mind. I mean, she was almost like a dream, saying she forgave me and all. Before I knew it, we were at Erek's place. When we got there, Jake sent a thoughtspeak to Erek.

(Erek, it's us. You're gonna need to put a hologram over us.) He said. Erek came out a moment later.

"Okay, it's safe guys." We all, except for Tobias, demorphed and headed inside. Ax morphed human, but stayed silent. Tobias was on Ax's shoulder.

"Okay, I have a question." Marco raised his hand once again. "Do you know what he's going on about?" He asked, pointing at me.

"Depends." Erek said. "What's he going on about?"

"Some chick named Cady," Rachel said.

"And a lion and a cheetah." Cassie added.

"And a freakin' buffalo, dude!" Marco finished.

"So?" Erek asked.

"So we were wanting to know if you had any answers." Jake said.

"Not really." Erek said. "I was with you guys, remember?"

"Well, I have better things to do than this," Rachel said. "The new Agents book came out yesterday, and I'm gonna go to the mall and buy me a copy."

"Oh!" Cassie said. "The new Josh one?"

"Yep, wanna come with me?" Rachel asked.

"Why not, but only to the book store." Cassie said.

"Let's go then." Rachel said. They said good-bye and walked outside.

"I guess I should get home too." Marco grumbled as he walked away.

"Me too," Jake said. "See ya Erek." He said as he left.

"I suppose this means that we should also leave?" Ax said.

"Oh, Aximilli, I forgot you were there." Erek said. "No, you three can stay as long as you want, I guess."

"Why are you so quiet, Ax?" I asked.

"I do not know, I just do not feel very social today." Was his answer.

"Well, I guess we'll go." I said, looking at Ax and Tobias.

(Sure.) Tobias said. (Wanna go for a cinnamon bun, Ax?)

"Yes, a cinnamon bun would be delicious." Ax said.

"Okay then, let's go." I said.

**-:-EREK-:-**

David, Tobias, and Ax left. The door shut behind them, I sighed and went down to the park. The seven teenagers were sitting on the grass leisurely, just talking.

"I just want to know, _what_ did you guys do?" I asked, they looked up at me. "David was talking about a cheetah, lion, and buffalo attacking him. And something about Cady forgiving him?"

"We did it, didn't we?" Josh asked. "He won't brush it off easily, but it'll be fine."

"He seemed a bit disturbed." I said.

"We know David." Kat said, a bit of anger in her voice. "He'll live and get over it." Josh shrugged.

"I guess he will." I said, leaving the park and into the house. I walked up the stairs, shutting my bedroom door behind me. I locked it, and turned around with a sigh.

**I SEE THEY SAVED DAVID.**

The Ellimist stood in the middle of the room, hands placed together, a calm expression on his face.

"I don't like lying to them." I said. "The Animorphs should have gotten an honest answer. _David_ should have gotten an honest answer."

**YET THEY DIDN'T.**

"Because you told me not to give them one!" I exclaimed. "What is so important I can't tell them? They'd make a great team!"

**THAT IS THE POINT. THE GREATER THE EFFORTS TO KEEP THEM APART, THE GREATER LENGTHS THEY WILL GO TO TO FIND EACH OTHER.**

"You're testing them?" I asked. "Seeing how far they'll go to get to each other? What purpose does that serve?"

**BOTH TEAMS WILL LEARN A GREAT DEAL FROM THIS EXPERIENCE, AND IT WILL RESULT IN A VITAL VICTORY.**

"In other words, it's all to benefit something in the future?" I asked.

**IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PUT IT THAT WAY, YES. NOW, I BELIEVE YOUR TEAM OWES YOU A GRAPHIC RECOUNT OF THEIR MISSION.**

"I suppose they do." I said, I started to turn around, but stopped, and turned to face the Ellimist again. "My team? I assume you have a name for them other than that?"

**THEY WILL WIN THIS WAR WITHOUT AS GREAT A COST AS IT WOULD HAVE BEEN IF IT WERE JUST THE ANIMORPHS. I WILL GO NOW, THE AGENTS NEED YOU.**

He dissappeared. It took me a minute to fully register what he was saying. The Agents? I had heard that before...and right then, I saw everything the Ellimist was planning. Clever..very clever. All I needed to do was play the part, and if it meant keeping the Animorphs and the Agents in the dark until the time was right, then so be it.


	14. Ax: The Agents

**AXIMILLI:**

"Okay, so you just woke up remembering this?" Jake asked, his arms crossed. We had gathered in Cassie's barn as usual. Jake was pacing, Marco laying leisurely on a bale of hay, Rachel leaning against the barn door, Tobias in the rafters, Cassie sitting what humans call 'indian style' in the loft, and me, in human morph, sitting on a haybale. I was not really paying attention to the conversation, I was reading the new _Agents_ book, it came out today. Normally, I would not read during a meeting. But this was a Carman book, and she just learned she had a deadly disease. I could not bring myself to stop reading, so I tried to pay at least a little attention to the meeting too. I think David woke up with memories of the Crayak or something, I do not know.

"Pretty much." David said. "I remembered doing all this stuff to you guys...it was horrible."

(You haven't done anything serious, just minor offenses.) Tobias said.

"Yeah, but most of these didn't happen." David said. "The Crayak showed them to me, he said if I had stayed with him, whatever _that_ means, those things would have happened."

"I didn't know the Crayak thought of you as attractive, David." Marco teased. "I didn't even know he was-"

"Back on subject!" Jake exclaimed, giving Marco a fierce look. "With him...that has to mean something other than Marco's interpretation..."

"With?" Cassie said, deep in thought. "Under the Crayak's control!"

"You may be onto something." Jake said.

"Umm...Jake." Marco said, David was sitting with his head in his hands.

(David?) Tobias asked.

"Thanks Cassie," David said, sitting up. "I remember it now."

"Weird." Rachel said.

"Yeah." David said. "But I'm not complaining."

"You remember anything about the cheetah, the lion, the dorky buffalo, and that chick?" Marco asked, David sighed.

"She has a name!" He exclaimed. "Her name is Cady, please call her that!"

"Cady?" I asked, looking up.

(Wow, Ax. You haven't said anything all meeting) Tobias said. (Why the sudden urge to speak?)

"What is her _full_ name?" I asked, David gave me a look humans would call 'weird'.

"Umm..Cady Roberts?" He said uncertainly.

"That is odd." I said, standing up. "There is a girl named Cady Roberts in this book."

"Oh yeah, that Cady." Marco said. "Cady Mae."

"Okay, how the crap does he know my ex-girlfriend's middle name?" David asked, pointing at Marco.

"Oh my word." Cassie said, climbing down from the loft. "The Agents...do you think?"

"I don't know." Jake said. "But there's no reason not to check it out. If they are real, that could mean a _lot_ of help for us."

"Hello! Clueless here!" David exclaimed.

"Long story short, _Agents_ is a book series about seven kids who help the Chee defeat the Yeerks. Josh, Alex, Carman, Kat, Alyssa, Audrey, and Cady." Cassie said.

"Weird." David said. "When I lived in Oregon, I knew them. Josh Addison, Alex and Alyssa Jacobs, Carman Harris, Kat Wells, Audrey Perison, and Cady Roberts."

(That's them) Tobias said. (The Agents)

"Now that he knows, let's get back on subject." Jake said.

"We need a computer." Rachel said, looking at Marco. "A good one, with high-speed internet."

"Fine." Marco said, standing up. "Come on."

-::-

"It is done, Prince Jake." I said, Jake rolled his eyes.

"How many times do I have to tell you? Don't. Call. Me. Prince." He said, Marco sat down in the computer chair.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Cassie asked.

"I dunno, proof they exist?" Rachel asked.

"Cassie's right, we can't find proof on the internet." Tobias said. "But we _can_ look up the summary for the next book...it's Audrey."

"And we all know you _love_ Audrey." Marco teased, opening the internet.

"Thanks, really." Tobias said, then under his breath coughed: "Aly lover."

"HEARD THAT!" Marco whirled his chair around.

"Calm it down you two, just look up the summary." Jake said, rolling his eyes.

"Found it." Marco said, we all crowded around the computer, reading. When we were done, we went back to our original positions.

"Carman cannot die!" I exclaimed.

"Well she's going to, get over it." Rachel said.

"I like Carman." Tobias said. "And I agree with Ax, if they should kill someone off, it should be Kat or Cady."

"Hey!" David exclaimed.

"She's _your_ girlfriend, not mine." Tobias said.

"And I don't think they should kill of Kat." Jake said. "Aly or Audrey. They get on my nerves sometimes..."

"Josh can handle them." Marco said. "Maybe we need to trade Jake in for Josh..."

"That would be cool." Cassie said with a laugh.

"Great, I've been overthrown by a fictional character." Jake said.

"Prince Jake?" I said, Jake looked at me. "The cheetah, the lion, and the buffalo that David saw? I think I have the answer."

"Please tell." David said.

"The Agents morph." I said. "Carman was the cheetah, Audrey the lion, and Alex the buffalo."

"_Now_ we know who'd pick buffalo as a battle morph..." Marco said.

"On the contrary, his morph is quite effective." I said.

"That's beside the point. Looks like the Agents are real." Jake said. "They attacked David."

"Why though? Because he was under the Crayak's control?" Cassie asked. "If that's the case, how did they know?"

"She's got a point, Erek hasn't met David yet." Tobias said. "During the meeting yesterday, David was in the video game store." David's eyes sparked with recognition and understanding.

"Aly." He said. "Alyssa and Kat, I saw them in the store! Alyssa bought Gears of War."

"Really?" Marco asked. "Nice..."

"And they led me behind the Taco Bell with the pretext they were in danger." David said. "Somone following them..."

"Another Agent?" Rachel asked. "They have holo-emitters."

"And then the cheetah appeared." David said. "And started talking, then the Crayak took over. I fought the cheetah, then when she fell, the lion attacked me, and almost killed me. The buffalo came in there somewhere, then Cady was over me, I demorphed, and that's the last I remember."

"Okay, so roughly, they lured you out there to get you out of the Crayak's control." Rachel said.

"Actually, from the bits of conversation I remember, they were going to just capture me. But they found out the Crayak was controlling me, and decided just to try to get him out." David said.

"Makes sense." Jake said.

"Yeah, the Ellimist gives us an extra warrior, and at the same time hands him to Crayak on a silver platter." Marco said. "Sounds about right."

"So what we want to know is, why did they want to capture David? Erek has never even heard of him, so the Agents couldn't know." Cassie said.

"Maybe they could." Rachel said, pushing Marco out of the chair and sitting down in front of the computer. She clicked a link on the main _Agents_ page. "Look at this." In bold letters on the page was the word 'Animorphs', under it a picture of five kids and an Andalite. "They think of us the same way we think of them, fictional characters somehow real."

"My word." Cassie said. "Do we _really_ look like that? Sheesh, I look like a boy!"

"I look like a cartoon." I said.

"I look like a dork with bad hair." Marco said.

"I look like a fashion hopless." Rachel said, looking at the picture with disgust and revulsion.

"I don't know which one's me and which one's Tobias." Jake said.

"Easy, I'm the one in back." Tobias said, obviously not approving. "I don't like that facial expression..."

"You? Look at my hair!" Jake exclaimed.

"Hey! I'm not even on there!" David exclaimed, Rachel got up as Marco sat down.

"Hmm...should I click characters or books?" Marco asked.

"Characters." Tobias said. "Let's see how they describe us." Marco clicked the word 'characters'. The page had six squares with animated pictures in them, and under those were six more pictures with humans in them. Each picture had a name under it.

"It's like the _Agents_ website." Rachel said. "Exactly like the _Agents_ website."

"That means the pictures on the bottom with real people, are the people who play us in the TV show." Jake said. "And the pictures on the top are personality profiles."

"Bottom." Cassie said, Marco clicked the first one, Jake.

"Oh my word Jake is played by Shawn Ashmore!" Rachel exclaimed. "That is _so_ not cool."

"I like it." Jake said, smiling. "I'm Iceman..."

"Okay, next one." Marco said, going back to the character page and clicking the next one, Cassie.

"Who the crap is Nadia Nascemento?" Cassie asked, we all looked at her. "Sorry...spending too much time reading _Agents_ books..."

"I dunno, she's kind of pretty." Rachel said. "Not as much as Cassie though.

"I have to agree." Jake said, Tobias and Marco raised their hands briefly, Cassie blushed. "Let's go to the next one."

"Rachel." Marco said.

"Oh my word!" Rachel exclaimed. "That Nadia girl is prettier..."

"Um...yeah." David said, looking at it in revulsion. "Go to the next one."

"Hey, it's Marco." Rachel said, Marco clicked it. Rachel, Tobias, and David burst into laughter, Jake and Cassie tried to hold back their laughter, but it didn't work, Marco looked appalled.

"He's...he's so dang ugly..." Rachel said, laughing. "It looks just like Marco!"

"HEY!" Marco exclaimed. "Does not..."

"Okay, we've had our laugh, go to the next one." Jake said, Rachel gasped.

"He is cute!" She exclaimed.

"He sure is." Cassie said.

"Who?" Tobias asked. "I can't see from here."

"It is you." I said, Jake stood aside, letting Tobias see, he smiled.

"Wow, I wear leather...nice." Tobias said, nodding approvingly. "I'm the cute one."

"Now that you think about it, he does look like Tobias." David said.

"Yeah, he does." Marco said. "Let's go to Ax, he's the only one left."

"Ewww..." Rachel said. "Ax's human morph is better looking that _that_, sheesh."

"We don't have time to read those personality profiles." Jake said, looking at the clock on the computer. "I've got to go, we'll meet up in the usual place tomorrow."

"I've got to be home soon too." Cassie said. "Come on Ax, Tobias, David."

"See you tomorrow." David said, he, Cassie, Tobias, and I left Marco's house. As we walked, we discussed the _Agents_ books.

"I've got them all, I'll let you borrow them." Cassie said. "Cady's book is sixth, though. They've got an order: Josh, Carman, Audrey, Alyssa, Alex, Cady, then Kat."

"Cool." David said. "They must be good, Ax seems to like them."

"I do, they are...interesting." I said.

"Don't spoil anything for him, Ax." Cassie said.

"Speaking of which, the book before the one Ax has, the Josh book, I need it." Tobias said.

"I've got it." Cassie said. "I'll get it and the first seven for you guys."

"What's after the Carman one Ax has?" David asked.

"Nothing yet." Cassie said. "It hasn't come out. Next is Audrey, Alyssa, Alex, Cady, Kat, then the last book, all of them put together."

"So the series is almost over?" David asked.

"Yeah, she's already written them, they're releasing one a day." Tobias said. "That Carman one came out today, didn't it?"

"Ax and I stopped by the bookstore this morning." Cassie said. "While you guys read, I'm going to look up the _Animorphs_ series."

"Hey, I'll help." Tobias said. "We should look on fanfiction dot net, I used to go there all the time. We could see what people write about us."

"Sounds good." Cassie said, we stopped in front of her house. "Ax, Tobias, you two demorph, I'll run get the books and David can take them."

"Yes." I said.

"Well, today's been interesting, hasn't it?" Tobias asked.

"I believe so." I said.


	15. Audrey: An Idea

**FIVE DAYS LATER: TWO HOURS BEFORE THE WORLD SUMMIT**

"Guys!" Aly ran in the deserted shack. We had since moved inside, all seven of us had to live in one room. With only two bathrooms, which really stunk on the girl's part. Because there were five of us, and there were only two boys. Anyway, back to now. Aly and I had been meeting in the shack for a while now, it was kind of like a secret club. See, there wasn't much to do here, so we wrote. We would write _anything_, songs, poems, fiction, you name it. And every other day at eight pm, we'd meet in the shack and read aloud to each other. Carman had joined us not too long ago, we 'd caught her writing poems, rather depressing ones actually. They'd gotten a lot happier over the time she spent with us.

"Where have you been? We've been waiting for twenty minutes!" Carman exclaimed, dropping her pen. She picked it back up. "Oops."

"Sorry, I was busy copying this down for you guys." Aly said, waving two sheets of paper in the air. "Normally I wouldn't do that, but this is different."

"How different?" I asked.

"It's a song. A _three_ part song." Aly said. "I wrote it a little after lunch, it took a while to get melody down. I've been copying them for you guys, which took a while, since I had to do it by hand."

"Cool." Carman said. "Let's see it."

"Okay, the melody's on there, and the lines are color coded." Aly said, handing us each three sheets of paper stapled together. "Green is Carman, blue is Audrey, red is me, light blue is both of you, purple is me and Audrey, pink is me and Carman, and black is all three of us."

"Dang." I said. "It's long too."

"Hey, that's just because I added the notes." Aly said. "I already know the whole thing by heart."

"Okay, let's try it." Carman said. "Audrey, your line is first."

"Why, Aly?" I asked.

"Because, I thought that line was...you." Aly said.

"What is this song called?" I asked.

"It's on the top of the paper, you're just trying to stall." Aly pointed out.

I sighed, and sung the first line. Carman and Alyssa joined in, and we sung a nice three-part harmony.

"I knew you three were up to something." We turned around, Alex, Josh, and Cady were in the shack with us.

"Umm...Hi." Carman said, waving once.

"I liked it." Alex said.

"I did too." Josh said. "I've had an _awesome_ baseline playing in my head the whole time." Josh plays the base guitar, he's really good at it too. Cady plays the piano, and Alex the drums, piano, and a little electric guitar. Aly and I play some aucustic guitar, not much though. Carman has never had music lessons, so she just sings, Kat is good with melodies, plays the electric guitar, and a little aucustic. And all seven of us can sing well, Aly, Carman, and I being the best. Then Alex, Kat, Cady, and Josh being worst. But he's good.

"I had some good notes to put to that." Cady said.

"Actually, we _have_ notes." I said, holding up my piece of paper. Cady took it, and read it over.

"Oh, this would sound _beautiful_ on the piano." She said, handing it back to me.

"Come on, _please_ let us have a go at it?" Alex asked. "When we get back to the normal world where we have instruments."

"If we _ever_ get back to the normal world." Josh said. "I'm beginning to think this is a _permanent_ home."

"It better not be." I said hotly. "No Chee can do violence, so we can get out anytime we want...can't we?"

"I'm not so sure about that." Josh said. "They've got _tons_ of technology we don't know how to use, and they can lock us in."

"Where's Kat?" Carman asked.

"In the corridor outside the meeting room." Cady said. "Jake's in there talking to Erek, he came by to confirm the details for the summit."

"Oh, that's tonight, isn't it?" Carman asked.

"Yeah, in two hours." Alex said. "Jake's got to leave soon, to meet up with the others."

"Kat waiting outside to see if she can get a glimpse of Jake?" Carman teased. I was watching Aly.

"Aly?" Josh asked. "What's up?"

"Kat's going to be waiting alone." Aly said, writing in her notebook. She ripped three pages out and stood up, holding the notebook and pen out to me. "Take this back to the room, will you? I'm gonna run see Kat."

"Oooh...the you-know-what?" I asked, in a sing-song voice. Trying to give her hints.

"Yeah, that." Aly said. "In the meantime, maybe the holo-emitters can make instruments that will work. Audrey, Carman, we'll meet again when I get back. I'll show it to you."

"Okay." I said. "Just make sure you get a good mental image of Jake, I want you to make a hologram and show us."

"I will." Aly said with a laugh, taking the piece of paper and walking out.

"Let's do this in our sound-proof room, shall we?" Josh said, we started to walk back to our room. Which indeed, was sound-proof. We could hear _every detail_ of sound outside of the room, but no one could even hear us scream.

"Awww...Josh!" Cady exclaimed. "There's not enough room for a piano in there! Not even a holographic one!"

"It's all right Cade, keyboards are portable and will work for this." Alex said, looking over Carman's paper.

"Okay, won't sound as authentic though." Cady said, dissapointment in her voice.

"We're going to be using _holographic_ instruments. It won't sound as authentic even if we had enough room for a piano." Carman said, as Alex handed her the paper back. I caught a glimpse of Aly waiting around the corner from the hallway the meeting room was in, reading over the paper, just to be sure. No one else noticed her, and when we entered the room she was still there.

"Let's take a shot, and hope this works." Josh said. "Otherwise, we'll be miserable."

"We're _already_ miserable." I whispered.


	16. Kat: The Plan

**Kat**

I was sitting on the metal bench in the hallway. Erek would be coming out of the door at the far end of the hallway - he put me here so I couldn't hear him talking to Jake - any minute now to tell me the Animorphs' were on their way to the summit, and their plan. Which I was supposed to relay to the others, but at this rate, I would be sitting here all night. I leaned against the wall and groaned.

"Hey Kat." Aly sat down beside me, three sheets of paper in her hand. "Still nothing?"

"Hey Aly. And no." I said, sitting up straight and facing her. "What's up?"

"I brought you something." Aly said, dangling the paper. "See, I heard the way you talked about Jake, and...that gave me an idea."

"What kind of idea?" I asked.

"Well...a song idea." Aly said.

"We all know how much you and Audrey like to write songs." I said, Aly smiled. "So...what's this song. that I so wonderfully inspired, about?"

"Your feelings towards Jake."

"Let me see it. I wanna see if you got it right."

"Not yet." Aly said, moving the paper out of my reach as I grabbed at it. "I want you to sing it."

"Aly! You know I can't sing!" I protested.

"Yes you can. And I want to hear it." Aly said. "Now, are you going to sing it or not?"

"Okay, now let me see that song." I said, she raised her eyebrows.

"Read it, while you sing." She said.

"I promise. Now give it to me!" I exclaimed, she held it out. I took it, read the notes over, and started to sing.

After a few lines, I was in tune, and into the song.

**JAKE:**

"I don't know, maybe-" I started, but stopped. There was someone singing, and nicely at that. It was a girl, I listened carefully so I could hear the words. There were breaks and pauses, but at one point, the voice kept going, and didn't pause for nothing.

"Jake-" Erek started, I held up a hand.

"One second." I said, putting my hand down, the voice continued.

The last line dragged out, and then it stopped. The air seemed so dead without the song.

"Erek..." I said. "Chee can't...sing, can they?"

"I wouldn't know, I've never tried it. But probably." Erek said. "Now, what were you saying?"

**KAT:**

"Beautiful, Kat! Beautiful!" Aly exclaimed.

"Thanks." I said, but before I could get anything else out. The door was opened, Aly and I turned. Jake and Erek were in the doorway, the latter trying to coax his companion into leaving.

"Run." Aly whispered, grabbing my hand and pulling me away. I ran with her, we turned the corner, I wanted to stop, Aly kept me going. We entered what was labeled a storage closet, but Aly and I knew better. We went in, the others were in there. They looked up at us immediatly, concern etched on their faces.

"What was all that about?" Josh asked, standing up.

"Well...Kat was waiting in the hallway, and I brought her that song, you know, to keep her entertained, so she sings it. And Jake comes in the room, I didn't think she was that loud! So we ran." Aly said, while she was explaining, I just sat down on my bed. He like my singing? _I_ didn't even like my singing!

"Kat? Kat?" I came back to reality, Cady was sitting next to me. "See? Told you you could sing."

"Okay, that's weird. But okay." Alex, who's ear had been plastered to the wall up against the corridor, sat down on his bed. "Jake just shrugged it off, but he's looking around a bit."

"He won't find us in here if we be quiet." Josh said, standing in front of the door, just watching it. I knew he was listening to the yelling, he turned around to look at us. "So all of you, just whisper. Heck, try not to talk or make any noise until Erek comes in. Because you know he will."

"All right." Aly said, she sat down on her bed, picked up the book she had been working on, and read. Alex, Audrey, and Carman played a card game, I sat on my bed, just thinking, Cady continued reading _Gone With the Wind_, and Josh sat on his bed indian style, watching the card game. About thirty minutes later the door opened, it was, as we had expected, Erek. He didn't look furious, but more along the lines of...frustrated. And I had a feeling, most of it was because of us. We all looked up when he entered, the door shut beind him. His hologram took a deep breath, then let it out. I opened my mouth, he raised a hand to silence me.

"I let you sit out there. It's not your fault." He said calmly, he closed his eyes, you could tell he was trying to contain himself. "I just want to know...what was with the singing?"

"I brought it to keep her entertained while she waited." Aly said. "I didn't think he would hear her, sorry." Erek waved a hand, then looked at me with interest.

"You sung that?"

"Umm...yeah." I said, kind of embarrassed. Erek smiled.

"Jake wasn't the only one who liked it." He said, I smiled. "Speaking of which, what is that song?"

"Aly wrote it." I said, Erek looked at Aly, eyebrows raised. Aly shrugged, blushing a bit.

"You were my inspiration." Aly said, looking at me. "Or your feelings, rather."

"Okay, okay, we get it. Anything else you needed to say?" Josh asked, I could tell he was eager to talk to us alone. Erek smiled.

"Jake is one stubborn person. And that's about it." Erek said, we laughed. So he thought we didn't hear Jake drop it? What _is_ that big hunk of junk playing at?

"He sure sounded stubborn! We could hear him in here!" Cady exclaimed, trying to keep the cover.

"That doesn't surprise me." Erek said, turning to leave, but just as his hand was on the knob..."You guys, try to stay in here. If something happens to them, they'll be taken here and treated. So they might be here for a few days, think you could handle lying low?"

"Yeah. We can do that." Josh nodded, Erek smiled and left.

"How can he do that to us?!" I exclaimed.

"Just keep us locked up in here like this!" Carman said.

"It's not fair. That's what it is." Alex said.

"That's not what I'm worried about." Josh said, we looked at him. He took a deep breath, then let it out. "Why is he so against us seeing the Animorphs? It's more than he's telling us, that's for sure."

"Someone once said, that one of the good traits of people our age." Cady said, pausing a minute. "Is that they know when you're being real with them."

"Hmm." Josh said, he smiled. We all did.

"That's a inspiration, Cady. Pure inspiration." Audrey said, a glint in her eyes.

"I just know you're thinking what I'm thinking." Aly said.

"What am I thinking?" Audrey asked, eyebrows raised.

"Stay out of sight of Erek, but not the Animorphs." Aly said. "We don't talk to them, just maybe talk to each other, doesn't matter if they hear or not, as long as they see us. We don't acknowledge them at all."

"I just _know_ something is going to happen to them at the summit." I said. "So if they're drifting in and out of conciousness, we can play ghost."

"That'll work." Cady said, piping up. "We can talk to them, without really talking. They'll be so confused, they won't bring it up around Erek!"

"No more than two people away from here." Josh said. "Two holograms covering if Erek comes in is enough."

"What if an Animorph approaches us?" Carman asked. "Something along the lines of 'hey, do I know you from somewhere?'."

"When you see them coming, walk off." Alex said. "If that doesn't work..."

"We'll just have to tell them. But somewhere Erek is bound not to be." Josh said, I grinned.

"I have just the right place."

**Ooh...secret plan. -Faith & Star  
**


	17. Alex: Fanfiction

"Gosh, it is so boring in here!" Carman couldn't take it anymore. I grinned.

"That's the spirit," I said. "Complain the whole time."

"Sounds like what you would do, Alex." Audrey said without looking up from the notebook she

and Alyssa were sharing.

"At least you two have something to do." Josh spoke from putting the cards back into the box.

"Playing ten games against Carman, and three against Cady, and only winning two of the games, you'll find it gets very tiring." He looked at Carman. "Where'd you learn to play cards?"

She shrugged. "No where."

Josh rolled his eyes, then his eyes strayed to the corner. "What is that? In the corner."

We all looked. It was a small silver box. "Looks like a laptop." Alyssa said. I went to grab it before anyone else.

"I don't know about you guys," I said. "But I wouldn't mind some good fanfiction right now."

Alyssa, Audrey, Carman, and Josh all grinned.

"To quote a well-known girl, let's do it." Carman grinned.

I opened the laptop and switched it on. "Dang, this is nice!" I said. It took a grand total of, like, five seconds to boot up, which is much faster than all of our computers. Okay, I might be exaggerating, but only a little, I swear! I logged onto the internet, and onto our favorite fanfiction site I clicked 'books' and the page loaded instantly.

"Okay, that's so weird." Alyssa remarked. "Last time I checked, which was the hour before we went to the mall, the Animorphs button was right there!" She pointed. It wasn't there. In the Animorphs' place, was the title 'Agents'.

"Let's check it out, hmm?" Josh said, and I clicked it. It opened to a whole page of stories. I read the summery on the first one.

"Takes place after Carman: The Operation." I read aloud, eyebrows furrowed. "Alyssa and Josh's relationship progresses after the funeral, while Alex and Cady step it down a knotch." I looked at them. "Please tell me I'm crazy if I said that that's us."

Alyssa and Josh were staring at each other, while Cady was in shock. Audrey looked about ready to laugh.

"Alex, maybe you're overreacting." Katherine spoke. "I mean, just because they used our names doesn't mean it's us."

I scrolled down and read another summery. "Oh boy, here's a doozy. After Cady dumps him, Alex needs comfort. This is a Kat/Alex fic." I stared at her. "If that doesn't tell you this is us, tell me what will."

Audrey picked the laptop out of my lap and started to scroll down. Then her eyes got wide and she screamed. "OH MY GOD!"

"What?" Alyssa asked, looking at the screen. Then she burst out laughing.

"Tell us." Josh said. Audrey just stared at the screen in disgust, while Aly kept laughing.

"Oh my word..." Alyssa said inbetween giggles. "I never guessed... that you and Audrey... would like each other... Alex."

I stared. "Say what?"

She turned the laptop so I could see. "Yeah, sounds like a good story," I said, but then I read the last bit. "Audrey/Alex?!" I yelled. "What kind of sick joke is this?!"

Audrey shivered and took the laptop back. Then she started laughing.

"What now?" Cady asked.

"Hm, Kat and Josh." Audrey replied. "Not bad."

"You two would look good together." Alyssa teased. Josh and Katherine looked at each other, then looked away, both shaking their heads.

"But the primary stories are Aly/Josh and Cady/Alex." Carman said from her spot looking over Audrey's shoulder. All of a sudden, she looked a little green.

"What?" Alyssa asked, taking a look. "Oh heck no, that is just wrong!"

"Do we even want to know?" Kat remarked.

"No, no you don't." Carman quickly said. "You most definatley-" Josh took the screen. The three girls sighed.

"Oh nasty," Josh said. I looked, then up at him, and at Aly.

"Okay, you were right, I didn't want to know!" I said.

"I am officially scarred for life!" Alyssa shrieked.

"Dude, they even have the crazies on this on too!" Audrey remarked. She clicked on something.

"Aparently the most fav pairings are either Cady/Josh, Cady/Alex, and Aly/Josh. Everyone likes paring Kat, Carman, and I up with OC's."

"I wonder what pairings are in the books." Carman wondered.

"I wonder who wrote about us." Josh said. Audrey clicked something.

"It says that the Agents belong to Marie Baxter." She said. "I guess that'd be the author."

"Let's research her!" Alyssa said.

"Look, can we stick to the subject?" I asked. Everyone looked at me. "What?"

"And you get on me for acting fearless leader like." Josh remarked. Kat sighed.

"What's with the big sigh?" Cady asked.

"I just wish I could see him again." She answered.

Alyssa grinned. "You want to see him?"

Kat, as well as everyone else, looked at her. "You got a good look at him?"

Alyssa nodded. "Well, I got a half-decent glance at him, but I can remember." With that she closed her eyes and took her gorilla necklace into her fingers. Then, in the middle of the room, a hologram of a boy appeared. He was our age, the details were a little fuzzy, but you could see what he looked like. Kat stared.

"Wow, you got a good look at him." She remarked. "I could almost touch him..."

"He looks exactly how K.A. describes him in the books." Audrey said, looking at Jake.

"I wonder what the others will look like..." Alyssa trailed off, giving Audrey a look. Audrey grinned.

"Especially a certain Bird-Boy."

"And a certain monkey."

"And what about a certain blonde?" I shot in.

"Or a certain leader?" Katherine gave.

"Or a certain animal lover." Josh grinned.

"What about the certain alien?" Carman asked. We all looked at her. "What? Ax is my favorite!"


	18. Demorphing

**Erek**

"They're not waking up." Someone said. They _had_ to wake up. The Animorphs couldn't just..._die_. Sorry, lost, aren't you? The Animorphs had been brought in a few minutes ago, they succeded in stopping the attendees of the World Summit from becoming controllers. But they were badly damaged in the process. Badly as in a gorilla's organs showing, a wolf with only one leg, a tiger cut almost all the way in half, an Andalite with it's tail blade stuck in it's back, legs tangled together, and arms crushed, a red grizzly bear without hands and a deep gash in it's side, a lion without a mane or tail, and a dracon burn going almost all the way through him, and a red-tailed hawk so smushed and tangled together, with feathers falling off, tail cut off, and without a left foot. It was complete annihilation.

"I'm getting the secret weapons." I said. "Try to stop the deadly things. But they'll have to demorph to completely repair all the damage."

"The secret weapons?" The girl asked, holographic eyebrows raised.

"You'll see."

-::-

**Josh**

"Hey." Erek said, he sounded and looked alarmed. "I need you guys, NOW."

"They're dying, aren't they?" Kat said, standing up.

"Let's not jump-" Cady said, standing as well.

"Yes." Erek said. "They are. They've _got_ to demorph in ten minutes, or they're gone. That's where you guys come in, we need you to convince them to demorph."

"I-" Carman started.

"No time." Erek said, opening the door. "Come with me, all of you." We did.

"I don't wanna see this." Audrey said. "I _really_ don't wanna see what's happened to them."

"I don't either..." I said, we all stopped. Chee doctors milling around frantically, six mutilated animals on the ground being treated.

"I know it's hard to see, but they'll die like this if you don't help him." Erek said, Alex ran, sliding to his knees next to the grizzly bear. Cady and Kat walked to the lion and tiger nervously, kneeling next to them. I heard Audrey whisper something, then she ran to the hawk, holding him in her arms. I stepped forward, slowly lowering myself next to what was once a beautiful gray and white wolf. I looked back at Carman and Alyssa, Carman was frozen still, Alyssa was gently guiding her to Ax, who happened to be next to Marco. They sat down together, Aly had started to cry, Carman was whispering to Ax, crying too. I noticed Audrey was crying the hardest, begging Tobias to demorph.

I looked down at Cassie and sighed. Even leaders cry...

-::-

You couldn't imagine the joy I felt when Cassie began to change. I stood up, they made sure she didn't see me, and took her to another room, she was walking shakily. They were carrying Jake away too, David's door had just closed, Rachel was almost done demorphing, Tobias had just started morphing...Marco and Ax hadn't woken up.

"Carman," I said, sitting next to her. "You haven't tried have you?"

"I know..."

"Just try. He'll wake up."

She took a deep breath, nodded, and bent down, whispering again. He started morphing human, Carman and I stepped back as the Chee took him to an elcosure of grass and trees.

"Try again." Alex said, we turned around. He and Audrey were holding Aly as she cried her eyes out.

"It's not working!" She exclaimed. "I've tried everything and he won't wake up..."

"Aly." Carman said, sitting with them. Kat and Cady stood next to me, we just kind of watched.

"Just try again, you've _got_ to keep trying!" Audrey exclaimed, Aly shook her head. "Come on, he wouldn't give up if he was in your position."

"Okay." Aly whispered, bending down again. She sat up...nothing, she started crying again.

"Someone sound like Jake." Kat said. "He's Jake's best friend, maybe he'll respond to that."

"I've got it." I said, I bent down this time. "Marco, it's Jake...come on, demorph _now_! Rachel's going to kill you if you die."

I sat up...Aly quickly bent down, then sat up.

And he...

He demorphed. Aly started crying _again_, but this time she was smiling a little. They took him away, we all stood up, squished against each other, crying, and walking back to our room.


	19. Carman: Singing

**If you're confused on anything, it should be explained out in later chapters, or you can ask us. - Faith & Star  
**

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

Josh got rock and Alex got scissors.

"Awww man!" Alex exclaimed, putting his hand down. "I lost."

"So far, Josh has beat Kat, Cady, and Alyssa." I said. "And now you, so he's winning."

"Okay, Audrey." Josh said with a grin. "Give it your best shot."

"Why? I'll just lose." Audrey said.

"Rock, paper, scissors!" We chanted.

Audrey did paper, and Josh..Audrey sighed. He got scissors.

"Ha!" Josh said, smiling.

"Might as well give up, Carman. He'll just win...he's the king." Alex said.

"Don't be so sure." I said with a grin.

"Oh no, don't tell me you're as good at rock, paper, scissors as you are at cards!" Josh exclaimed, I shrugged.

"I honestly don't know." I said. "Never played."

"Dang, you _are_ deprived..." Kat said, I nodded.

"Rock, paper, scissors!" They chanted, Josh and I put out our hands out. Josh had paper...I had...

Scissors.

"Oh yeah!" I exclaimed, pumping my fist in the air. "I am the _master_!"

"We would root for you, but that means we don't get to go." Cady said, Audrey pretended to sniff.

"I'm sorry...you guys have to play again." I said, they groaned.

"Josh'll just win..." Alyssa mumbled.

"Hey, you never know." Kat shrugged.

"Optimist..." Audrey whispered.

"Good." Kat said with a smirk, stepping up to Josh and she...lost.

"Haha, so much for your 'try try again' moral." Alex said, stepping up, and not paying attention to what he was doing.

"So much? Alex, look." Josh said, Alex did, he had won.

"Really? AWW YEAH!" Alex pumped his fist in the air.

"Let me go next!" Cady exclaimed, Alex won again. "Darn..."

"I wanna go! I can beat him _easily_..." Audrey said, sure enough, she did.

"Darn it..." Alex snapped, Aly gasped.

"What?" I asked.

"I've got to go against Audrey!" She exclaimed, she and Audrey put their hands over their mouths and gasped.

"Sniff...sorry Aly..." Audrey said, they were pretending to cry, the others rolled their eyes.

"HA! TIE! I _knew_ they were always too much alike..." Alex exclaimed.

"Audrey...I'll give my turn up for you." Aly said.

"Really? Awww! You're my bestest buddy!" Audrey exclaimed, the others rolled their eyes as Audrey and Aly hugged each other. While they jumped up and down.

Well, it ended up like this: Me at ten am, Audrey at noon, Josh at two pm, Aly at four pm, and Alex at six pm. Kat didn't go because we all - and yes, she reluctantly admitted it - thought Jake had seen too much of her. Cady didn't want to go, but we made her, so she's going at eight pm.

"Carman! Nine forty-five!" Josh exclaimed, they pooled together and all made a hologram of me, just so it'd be as realistic as possible.

"Run, Carman, RUN!" Alex wailed. I grinned and exited the room, careful to avoid the Chee. I slipped into Ax's scoop, this was going to be hard, Andalites sleeping with one stalk eye open. But I had my emitter, I went invisible. Well, technically, I made my emitter change my appearance acoording to my surrounds, so whenever I moved, it looked like I wasn't there. Anyway, I stayed behind a tree, just in case. I hadn't seen him since he had gotten all patched up, for an alien, he was actually kind of cute. In the cuddly kind of way. Well, here goes my part. I had to _sing_. In the presence of _Ax_. Just remember how you sung with Audrey and Aly...it'll be all right...just don't think about it...

I took a deep breath.

I went through the song, it didn't take much effort, really.

I sighed. I'd done it, I opened the eyes I'd held closed the whole song. And there he was. Standing, and looking around curiously. I had woken him up...I wasn't supposed to. I sighed. I was either too close, or too loud. He'll notice if I open the door, I thought, as I creeped toward the door. I jumped back, a Chee had come in, I slipped out before it shut. Nice...I turned the emitter off, and ran exitedly back to the room.


	20. Audrey: Grass

**Audrey:**

"So, how'd it go?" Kat asked when Carman bounded through the door. Carman gave a big grin.

"It went fine... Except for the fact I woke him up."

"You did?" I asked, looking up from my hand of cards I was playing with Josh, Aly, and Alex.

"Yeah, but I didn't blow anything." Carman replied, sitting down beside Josh and watched us play. "Who's winning?"

"Me!" Alex grinned. "I'm about to win back my allowence!"

"Wanna bet?" I asked, Josh just grinned and shook his head.

"Sure." Alex said, a dare in his tone.

"Fine, I bet that ten dollars I won from you." I grinned. "If you win, I give it back. If you lose, I get twenty dollers. In cash."

He thought it over. "Done!"

"Oh, Audrey, don't do it to the poor guy!" Cady said.

"Yeah, that's just easy money." Carman grinned. "I like easy money!"

"She does too, that's why she always picks bets with Alex." Alyssa remarked, rearanging her hand. "Josh, hurry up and move already."

"Not before I get in on this bet." Josh grinned. "I have an idea, how about winner gets twenty."

"Ten from me and you if he wins." Audrey said. "But what if one of us wins? I don't want to give _you_ my well-earned money."

"Well-earned." Alex remarked. "You are full of it, Audrey Perison."

She gave him a grin. "It's the truth. You make stupid bets, I win them, it's like a new lifetime career."

"To answer your question, Alex gives the winner twenty bucks." Josh answered. Audrey nodded.

"What are ya'll playing, anyway?" Carman asked.

"Rummy." Aly replied. "So far, me and Alex are _tied_ -" She sent Alex a glare. "-And Audrey's in a close second."

"Yeah, that's all we've heard the whole time you were gone." Kat remarked. "I can't believe this! You can't be winning!"

"You cheated!" Cady agreed.

"Oh, come on, girls." Alex said. "I'm gonna make history here! 'Alex wins his first bet!'." He said, in a deep announcer voice.

"More like 'Alex loses: AGAIN!'." I replied. "Now go Josh."

"I'm going, I'm going." He said, and laid a card down after drawing from the deck. Cady went back to her music sheet she was working on, and Kat went back to her book. Carman was our personal cheerleader.

"Hey, what time is it?" Aly asked after a while. "I'm getting hungry."

"Me too." Carman agreed.

"It just so happens to be eleven fifteen." Kat said. "You have forty-five minutes, Audrey."

I thought about it. "OH! I have to go do my _thang_, right?" I asked. They rolled their eyes.

"Yes, Audrey, we had agreed that you would 'do your _thang_' at twelve o'clock." Josh said. "So let's hurry up and end this game. Alex, it's your move."

Alex grinned and laid the rest of his cards down. "I win!"

"Nuh-uh!" I argued. "Count your points!"

He did so, and grinned. "Seventy-two."

Alyssa laughed. "I got one hundred even."

"Eighty-six." Josh said, then looked at me. "Audrey?" He asked.

I grinned and looked at Alex. "Should I wait and let you give me my money now or later?"

"What did you get?" He asked, looking annoyed.

"One hundred and thirty." I said, smirking. Aly high-fived me. "Now, I think I want my money now."

"You'll have to wait until we get back to Nick's." Alex groaned. "Dang it, another months worth of allowence, gone!"

"It's your own fault." Cady said. "Now let's go get some food."

"YEAH!" Carman exclaimed.

"Hold on a second." Aly said. "Erek said we didn't have to stay in here to _eat_, did he?"

I grinned at her. "No, he never said we had to eat in here."

"Then let's go get something to eat... somewhere." Josh remarked. "Chee don't eat, do they?"

"They don't have to, but for cover they do." Cady said. "Let's go up to Erek's house and grab something from his fridge."

"One problem: What if he catches us?" Carman asked.

"What's he gonna do, say we can't have anything to eat?" Alex wondered.

"He'd better have some 'Dew, for his sake." I said, finished putting the cards up.

"I second that." Alyssa agreed.

"Me too!" Carman grinned.

"Oh, let's just go already." Kat rolled her eyes. "And I want a Mountain Dew too."

_**-:-**_

We managed to run up the stairs, into the kitchen, grab some food (and Mountain Dews, much to everyone's surprise and delight), and get back to the shack without getting cought.

When we finished eating the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, goldfish, and cheese itz, it was almost twelve o'clock, so I went ahead and got ready to go.

"Hold up," I said. "I have a question."

"And that would be?" Josh asked.

"How do you sing to a hawk without him setting the alarm off?"

"How should we know?"

"You're the hawk expert, you should know something about how to sneak up on a bird." I remarked.

"Well, I don't." Josh said.

"Here's another question: How do you _breath_ without the hawk noticing?" I asked.

"Audrey, it's irrelevent, just go." Aly said.

"But how am I going to do it if he blows our cover?" I asked.

"You're just stalling, now go." Kat pushed me to the door.

"Fine, then!" I said and walked out of the shack. I walked back inside. "Where are they keeping him again?"

"GO!"

"Okay, okay, I'm going, I'm going!" I replied, then started off. Tobias was staying in a tree near the middle of the park, so I put my hologram to portray me as grass.

_Wait a minute, he'll be able to know I'm a hologram!_ I screamed in my head. _Oh well, if I stay out of his line of sight.._.

I walked silently to the tree. I could see him, he was resting. Good.

_Okay, here we go..._ I took a deep, looked up at him in the tree, and began my song.

After a few lines, I noticed he had woken up. Maybe it was the fact he had yelled (What the?) and looked around. I ducked further behind the tree and continued singing.

(Who's there?) He asked, still trying to look around.

I maintained my hologram of grass, and silently crept back to the shack.

When I got there, I shut the door and sighed. "I _really_ hope he doesn't ask Erek if any Chee were around his tree, singing and pretending to be grass."

"Grass?"

I nodded. "Grass."


	21. Josh: Humiliation

**Okay, I know we haven't updated in a while, but we had writers block! -Faith & Star **

**Chapter Twenty-One: Josh**

"Josh!"

"I AM LEAVING!"

"Then why are you still here?" Audrey shot back.

"Because you guys keep talking to me!" I rolled my eyes.

"Well then ignore us and leave!" Alex exclaimed.

Aly whopped him on the head. "Shut up, Alex!"

I rolled my eyes - while laughing - and left the room. I wasn't even _close_ to being caught by any Chee. Which made me even more cautious. I entered Cassie's room, she was asleep. I didn't have to blend in, but I did. I had a feeling something would go wrong. But, as Kat once told me, 'you always have bad feelings when it comes to girls you like'. She didn't know how true that was. I understand the girls being able to do this, they're girls, but me? Well, it wasn't my idea. But Aly had put a lot of effort into writing this song. And I knew Alex would do it. Which made me feel like a wimp.

So I sung the stupid song (Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating. Aly's song was actually very nice) and sighed in relief when I was finished.

I started to leave, but she barely opened her eyes, and I stopped. She gave a small smile, then drifted back off to sleep.

Which was _definitely_ worth the humiliation of singing.

-::-

"I'm bored." Was the first thing I heard as I entered the room.

"Let's go to the Yeerk pool! KICK SOME BUTT!" Audrey proclaimed. "I can morph! I wanna use it!"

"It's harder than you think." Carman said. We all stared at her. "Raiding the pool."

"Don't tell me you've done it." Cady said.

"Once." Carman said. She looked down, obviously recounting painful memories. "Once."

"What I wanna knnow is..." I sat down across from Carman. "Where did you get the blue box?"

"It's not Elfangor's blue box, if you're asking. It belonged to my dad." Carman said. She looked up at us nervously. "My parents, actually."

"Where did your parents get a blue box?" Alex asked.

"Well, my mom was working on the time limit, this was in the early days of morphing, and my dad was usually the test subject." She said. She laughed to herself on the last part. "Which is how they became human nothlits."

"_Whoah!!!_" Aly and Audrey exclaimed.

"You're an Andalite!" Audrey said breathlessly.

"Technically, yes."

"Carman, you _rock_." Aly said.

Carman shrugged, blushing just a little.

"How did you know all this? You said your parents died when you were three." I asked.

"They did." Carman said. "They left me some stuff. Stuff that the Harris' can't take away. Or _ever_ even _touch_."

"Nice." Kat commented. "So how long have you been morphing?"

"Since I got the cube." Carman answered. "I was ten."

"Wow. You must be good." Cady said.

"Practice doesn't make perfect with morphing." Carman said. "But it helps you get used to it."

"Okay, Audrey, you want a mission? I've got one." We all turned around. Erek was in the doorway, he nodded toward Carman. "I'd have to say I never thought you'd tell them."

We all looked at Carman.

"Ever wondered why the Yeerks couldn't find me, my parents, or the cube?" Carman asked.

"Under the full protection of the Chee." Erek nodded. "So are you six, and the Animorphs."

"Nick, Emma, and Karen?" Aly asked.

"Them too. They know, they can't become controllers."

"So what's our mission?" Audrey asked.

"The Yeerks have a new security system." Erek said. "One that identifies controllers."

"Which means the Animorphs can't sneak in as humans." I said.

"But _you_ can." Erek said. "This is one of the reasons you guys became controllers. Remember your Yeerk's names?"

Our expressions, and voices, became cold and hard.

"Saris 279." Audrey said.

"Essilas 436." Kat answered.

"Tunrin 804." Cady said quietly.

"Ilias 562." Alex said.

"Acan 931." Carman's voice was filled with the hatred that came with being an Andalite.

"Larin 874." I said.

"Fadrin 946." Aly answered. "He's Sub-Visser 34."

"Oh, come on!" Alex exclaimed. "She gets the resistance _and_ a Sub-Visser? Next thing you know she'll have Marco, Tobias, Jake, _and_ Ax all falling in love with her!"

Aly gave him a look that said 'what the_crap_ are you talking about?'.

"Keep going, Erek." I said.

"You guys have to shut it off from the inside." Erek said. "See how well it works."

"We can do that." Cady said.

"But just in case." Kat said. She looked at Carman. "Could the rest of us borrow the morphing cube?"

"You won't need it." Erek said. "Besides, we just put it up."

"He's got a point." Carman said.

Kat sighed. "And I wanted to morph."

"You'll get to eventually." I said.

"Yeah, _eventually_." Kat said. "Alex, Audrey, and Carman can morph. Josh and Cady don't care, Aly's not saying anything, am I the only one?"

"I guess." Aly shrugged.

"Watcha thinkin' bout?" Audrey nudged her best friend.

"The Animorphs." Aly said.

"They're your back-up." Erek said. "All they know is, you're Chee they've got to cover so we can figure out what the Yeerks are doing."

"But they don't know it's us_exactly_?" Cady asked.

"No."

"When are we going?" Alex asked.

"Whenever the Animorphs say they're ready." Erek said. "It all depends on them."

"Okay, thanks for telling us." Aly said quickly.

Erek nodded. "I'll tell you if anything else comes up." He left.

Aly jumped up, peeking through the small hole in the door. "You think he's far enough away?" She asked anxiously.

"Aly?"

"It's three forty!" Audrey cried.

"Oh!" Kat jumped up.

Cady screamed. We turned around. There wasn't anything.

(Sorry)

"Carman! Warn us! That was _nasty_!" Alex exclaimed.

(Cockroaches are that way, naturally.)

"Carman, where the crap are you?" I asked.

(I just fell off my bed, don't move or you'll step on me, Kat."

Kat adopted a scared expression as Carman motered her way across the room.

"It's a cockroach, Kat." Audrey rolled her eyes. She shot a nervous look at Aly.

"It's okay, I know it's Carman, I'll be fine." Aly said quietly. Despite her words, she was breathing heavily as Carman zoomed under the door. Right past her foot.

Carman was back not to long ago. (Okay, I'm morphing)

We all looked away. _Especcially_ Aly.

"Aly, I know you hate cockroaches, but if you wanna be an Animorph, you've got to morph one." Cady said.

"You're scaring her!" Carman protested. "Coast's clear, go on, Aly."

Aly nodded, and left the room.

"Now she'll wake up in the middle of the night screaming about cockroaches and the Yeerk pool." Audrey said.

Alex shook his head. "You people just don't know where to draw the line."

"Wanna bet?" Kat asked hotly.

"No thanks, I don't have any money left."

"After all that betting you did, I didn't think so."


	22. Alyssa: Feeling Better

**Chapter Twenty-Two: Alyssa**

I sighed in relief. I was _this_ close to a Chee catching me. I slowly slid into Marco's room, with a hologram on, of course. Great...he was awake. He just always seemed to make everything complicated. Maybe I should just sing and- no. He'd call a Chee. Would he? I would have groaned. I couldn't know for sure whether he'd call someone or not. I guess I should just trust him and go for it. My heart did so without hesitation. My _mind_ however...well, I knew I was missing something. I'll figure it out later...right now, I didn't care.

I sung about two lines, then stopped, and opened my eyes uncertainly. He had sat up, and had a curious expression in his eyes. And he...

"Keep going." He said quietly. He knew someone was there. I grinned.

He smiled when I started singing again. It made the world around me stop

I started to slip out, then looked at him again. The grateful smile on his face made me feel good.

_Really good_.


	23. Alex: Wanna Bet?

**Chapter 23: Alex - Indestructible**

I looked up from where I was playing cards with Josh when Aly came back in. She was trying not to smile, but she was.

"I'm judging that from that look on your face, monkey boy liked it?" Audrey asked, looking up from where she was writing.

"Yes, he did..." Aly rolled her eyes.

"Awww, look at her!" Cady grinned at her. "She's smiling!"

"Oh shut up," Aly replied. "Your time is coming."

Cady's grin faded.

"Oh come on, Cade, you can't _still_ be mad about this..." Carman asked.

"I can, I will, and there's nothing that can change that fact." Cady replied.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh come on, you _know_ you still like that dude..."

"Yeah, besides, you're supposed to have _forgiven_ him." Josh raised an eyebrow.

"Oh forget it..." Cady said, focusing her attention to her book.

"Aren't _we_ cranky today..." Kat remarked.

Josh looked at the clock, then back at me with a grin. "You have exactly an hour and a half to get ready to sweep the mighty Xena off her feet."

"Oh yeah..." I rolled my eyes. "Get over yourself, mister I'm-in-love-with-the-sweet-animal-lover."

"Hey, it's not love."

"Then what is it?" Carman asked with an arched eyebrow.

Josh thought for a moment. "Okay, I can't exactly describe it."

"Uh-huh..." Alyssa remarked.

"Exactly." Audrey added, not looking up from her notebook.

I sighed. "Gosh, an hour and a half is a long time to burn..."

Audrey looked up at me with a grin. "Then let's do something so I can get more of your money - I mean, so you won't be bored."

"Yeah, right. You won't get anything _else_ out of me."

"Wanna make a bet?" She asked.

**An hour later...**

"What _posessed_ me to agree to _this_?" I wondered to myself as I snuck to the cabin Rachel was staying in. Audrey's idea of a bet, with the help of my good-for-nothing sister and Carman, was that I had to kiss Rachel before I sang to her. If I did it, Audrey would give me ten bucks back. If not, I owed her ten bucks. I strongly objected to this, however, on the grounds that Rachel would morph grizzly and KILL me, but hey, what's the problem? How could kissing a girl I don't know, a girl who can turn into a bear that weighs probably a ton and _COMLETELY_mutilate me, be a problem? Dude, this wasn't a problem. Of course not.

But it _was_, however, suicide. Or, at least, for me it was.

I snuck into Rachel's cabin, after slipping past a few Chee. She was sleeping. Whoopie.

I was _very_ tempted to not do it, then say I did, but I don't like to lie, so...

I walked over to her, and I noticed that she was a _lot_ prettier than what I imagined.

_Alex, you idiot, you CAN NOT do this,_ I screamed in my head as I leaned closer to her. Then, before I could back up, she stirred in her sleep and closed the gap between us.

_Oh... My... Word..._ I thought in shock as I kissed the most beautiful girl in the world.

And, even though she didn't know it was me, I liked it.

Suddenly her eyes began to flutter so I backed away. And you wanna know what the first word out of her mouth was? Hmmm? Well, I'll tell you anyway.

"Tobias?" She asked, looking around.

Oh yeah, _that_ made me feel good about myself. _No, Rachel, I ain't Tobias_. It was then that I decided to sing while she was still looking around for _Tobias_.

She began to smile, and oh my word... I'll just finish the song.

"How did you..." She wondered. "Who _are_ you?"

I smiled, though she couldn't see me. I knew I couldn't answer her question, no matter how badly I wanted to drop my hologram and say "Me! It was me!"

I waited for another Chee to come, but it was Cassie who showed up first. I slipped out the door, perfectly unnoticed, but paused when I heard Rachel begin talking.

"Cass, the _weirdest_ thing just happened..."

"You know, Rachel,_everyone's_ been experiancing something weird. Was it somebody singing?"

"Yeah! But..." I could practically see her eyebrows furrow. "But Chee can't sing, can they?"

I grinned and resumed my walk to the cabin. _I would imagine they could, if they wanted, but this hologram don't hide a Chee_.


	24. Piano?

**Chapter 24: Cady**

We all looked towards the door when we heard humming. Alex opened the door and slipped in, with his hologram down.

"Cough my money up, Perison. _I_ just kissed Rachel Berenson."

Audrey rolled her eyes. "One: _Don't you EVER _call me _Perison_ again. Two: I don't believe you."

He grinned. "Well, too bad. I did it, and _you_ have ten dollars of _mine_."

Then Audrey grinned. "Wait a minute," She looked over at Carman, then at Aly. "I told him ten _bucks_ didn't I?"

The nodded. "Yep, my stupid brother fell for it again." Alyssa smiled sweetly at Alex, but he ignored her.

His eyes went wide, then he groaned. "Dang it, I fell for it again!"

Audrey smiled innocently at him. "You _always_ fall for it."

"You two are _so_ immature." I remarked.

"So?" Alex asked, shrugging.

"Yeah, who cares?" Audrey asked. Then she grinned. "Aly finished your song, you know."

"But it's not finished!" Aly protested.

"But earlier you said -" Audrey started, but Aly interrupted her again.

"I said that it was _almost_ done. _Almost_."

"Oooooh..." Audrey said. "My bad."

"My song?" I asked, eyes wide. "I ain't singing anything."

"Why not?" Kat asked.

"Because I -"

"Don't you say you can't sing." Carman warned.

"Fine," I said, a little cranky. "It's because of _him_."

"Oh come on..." Josh rolled his eyes.

"Why are you even still _mad_ at him?" Aly asked. Then she looked at Audrey. "_Now_ it's finished."

"Because, even though I forgave him for what he did, it still hurts." I answered, completely ignoring the second part of her sentence.

"Then go sing and make him want to fix what he did." Audrey said in a 'duh' tone of voice. "Duh."

Oh, I hate that word.

"Don't you 'duh' me, Audrey Michelle." I said.

"Guys, come on." Carman interrupted us. "Cade, you need to learn your song."

"Yeah, you've only got -" Aly checked the clock. "You've only got an hour and fifteen minutes to get ready."

"Gee, let me just finish this chapter, then I'll do the song." I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah right," Alex rolled his eyes.

"We _all_ know you'll keep reading and reading, until there won't be enough time to learn the song." Kat agreed.

Dern it, they knew me too well. I sighed and closed the book. "Fine."

"Okay, here is -" Alyssa started to hand me her notebook, then snatched it back. "Wait! I was wrong, it aint finished yet!"

I sighed. "See? Now can I just go sit over there and read?"

"No." Audrey said.

"We already know the melody, so we'll teach it to you." Carman said.

I sighed. "Whatever."

**AN HOUR LATER...**

"Here!" Aly shoved a piece of notebook paper at me as I opened the door to leave. "You don't have time to read it, so just remember the melody and put it together the best you can."

"Yeah, yeah." I nodded and shoved the paper into my pocket.

I opened the door, put a hologram of my surroundings up, then made my way to David's cabin. I crept slowly along, dreading seeing him again. But, no matter how slow I walked, I made it there eventually. I took a deep breath and opened the door a crack. He was inside, but I couldn't see what he was doing. I quietly closed the door, then pulled the song out of my pocket. When I read the words, I considered stomping back to the cabin and giving Aly a piece of my mind, but I restrained myself. Why? Because she... She wrote down how I _really_ felt. I noticed there were music notes along with the words, so I got an idea...

_**-:- David -:-**_

I was trying to go over some homework (I know, so lame when I have Chee, who probably _invented_ this math equasion, do it for me), when I head a piano begin to play.

_PIANO?!?!_

I rushed to the window, but I didn't see anything. I opened the door, walked out and around for a minute, but still saw nothing.

The piano kept playing, and then a voice took up with it.

I realized, as the song ended and piano played it's final note, who the voice belonged to.

Cady.

_**-:- Cady -:-**_

I stopped playing, got rid of the hologram piano, and watched David. His eyes grew wide for a moment, then he looked around again.

He still looked like he always had, with his blonde hair, brown eyes. My heart did it's familiar flip-flop. _Oh stop it, _I warned myself. With that, I looked at David's puzzled expression on his face, smothered my smile, then walked back to the cabin.


	25. Audrey: Let's Get Morphs!

Audrey:

"Really?" I asked excitedly. Erek nodded.

"Does this mean we get to go to the gardens?" Kat asked. "You know, for morphs."

This time, Erek shook his head. It gave me this sinking feeling in the bottom of my stomach. But mostly, I was mad. Furious. Right now I just wanted to re-arrange his circuits, see if that would make him give us more freedom. But I held back and just balled my hand into a fist. Unconsciously. Aly breathed out, letting her shoulders fall back. She was calming herself. Both of us are very self-willed, meaning control-freaks are our worst enemies. Cady reached forward - unnoticed by Erek - and uncurled my fist. I relaxed, knowing that was what she was telling me to do. I noticed Josh shoot a look in Alex's direction that said 'no'. Alex, I could tell, wasn't going to let this go, but calmed his expression. Josh himself had trouble retaining his calm expression. Because, whether he shows it or not, he gets angry easily. Hard to believe, isn't it? Also hard to believe that he's one of the three most aggressive people in our group. Alex and I being the other two.

I bet if you combine us and the Animorphs, Rachel, Josh, and I would be the most aggressive. Alex coming close after us. Ax, Marco, David, Carman, and Alyssa are the five who would get mad next. You know, the ones that keep themselves in check for a little while, then their restraints come loose, and they're up there fighting with me, Josh, Rachel, and Alex. Next would be Jake, Tobias, and Kat. They're the ones that keep their cool, but are mad all the same. The push that anger down, and when they needed it, there it was. A lot of it. Then, last but not least, Cady and Cassie. The ones who control their anger best. But everyone gets mad. Cady has proved it with this whole David thing. Which, I might add, she is taking in the absolute wrong way. But hey, everyone's got a subject that works them up. Now Cassie, she can get worked up too. When it comes down to what's right and what's wrong...she has some strong opinions.

But anyway, it boils down to the fact that we were all mad at Erek. We-wait a minute. Put us with the Animorphs...now that's an idea. A good one at that. I grinned to myself, and listened to Erek tell us about our mission. I nodded at his words, inserted a comment every now and again. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, he left.

"Okay, there's something I've been dying to say." I blurted.

"No duh, you practically pushed Erek out the door singing 'sayonara'." Alex commented. I threw him a quick glare.

"Anyway," I said loudly. "I just had a thought. We could team up with the Animorphs!" I exclaimed. "On the mission tonight."

"Yeah, great idea. Except for the fact that we only have three morph-capable people." Cady said. "Plus you and Alex only have one morph each. No morph to get out with."

"Actually," Carman said. "We can get them more. Without even leaving the facility. "

Josh cocked an eyebrow. "Depends." He grinned. "Is it dangerous?"

"Not really." Carman shrugged.

"Darn it." Josh said.

"We can make it dangerous." Aly raised her eyebrows suggestively.

"No!" Kat protested. "Let's keep it easy."

"Well, you're no fun." I said poutily.

"She's right, no danger." Cady agreed.

"Why not?" Josh whined. In case you haven't noticed, Josh is addicted to danger.

Yup, pure adrenaline freak.

Alex rolled his eyes. "You're pathetic. But I agree, why not?"

"So we don't get killed, that's why!" Kat protested.

"They're Chee, they can't hurt us." Carman pointed out casually. "Whatever we do, we have to do it now. We don't have much time."

"She's right. Let's go." I said.

"Oh yeah, go grab some morphs and forget the mission. Which, in case you haven't noticed, it important." Cady said hotly.

"I know that." Carman got up and stood straight in front of Cady. "But since you, Kat, Josh, and Alyssa can't morph, and there's no way we can get to the morphing cube without being caught, Alex, Audrey, and I will morph, and the rest of you can finish the mission. We're halving it."

"We've never been able to keep more than one persona out of the room. Let alone three." Cady shot back.

"I don't even need to be there. I've got a bird morph." Carman said. "And I think they can pull it off."

"Hey." Josh stepped up, pushing them back with each hand. "Carman, she's got some good points. Alex, Audrey, be careful." He nodded in our direction, we nodded. While we grabbed our shoes, we heard Josh talking to Cady. "While you have good points, Carman's got a good idea. Plus..." He shifted his shoulders nervously, then sighed. "I think you're overreacting to seeing David again. And you should talk to him, not take it out on us."

Cady didn't reply, instead she went over to her bed, pulled the sheet all the way over her, and read. Josh sighed quietly, but left her alone. Aly shook her head, then shot a smile in the direction of me and Alex. We smiled back, Alex even gave her a thumbs up. Then we left.

-::-

"Shh..." Alex pulled me around the corner. I gave him a nasty glare. He held a finger to his mouth, calling for silence. I crossed my arms sulkily, but stayed quiet. A few seconds later, I saw the reason Alex had made us practically invisible. Heck, he could have made us invisible. But he probably wasn't thinking. I decided to, quickly, make us disappear. It was just in time too, cause those reasons walked right by us.

"I can't fly in this place. Not even a little bit of wind. Plus it's a closed space, so walking is easier." Tobias explained. I'd never seen his human morph before, but...wow. He...dang he was cute. While I watched my favorite dreamy-eyed bird-boy, Alex's attention was on the tall blonde warrior-princess. Of course. You know, he was probably thinking the same thing about me. But hey, did I care?

Heck no.

Oh great, the Animorphs were heading along the path to our room. We cautiously followed them, making sure to keep the hologram up. When we got to our room, we waited until the Animorphs had turned the corner to go in.

"Aww man , I could have sworn Ax knew we were there." Alex told me.

"Nah, Cassie was seriously getting suspicious." I waved a hand. That was immediately followed by a cough. An obviously fake cough. A cough meant to get somebody's attention.

"It went okay?" Josh asked. We were smart enough to pay attention to his dorky coughing.

"Yeah." Alex said. "I got a Northern Goshawk."

"I got an Ornate Hawk-Eagle." I added.

"We figured our lion and buffalo morphs were enough, but Audrey got a wolf anyway." Alex explained. "We found some cockroaches and flies, a spider, even." He grinned. "A tarantula. But Audrey was too wussy to touch it."

"HEY! I'm arachnophobic!" I protested.

"So all in all, we're set?" Kat asked. We nodded.

"Good. Erek should be here soon." Josh said. "And then we'll head to the Yeerk Pool."

Aly laughed hollowly. "Well, that's a nice thought."

-::-

Cassie:

"So...we're ready?" Jake asked. We all nodded. I saw the all-too-familiar glint in Rachel's eyes.

"Xena, will you do us the honors?" Marco asked.

Rachel grinned. "Let's do it."


	26. Marco: The Battle

Faith: Okay...blah blah blah-

Cassie: What do you mean 'blah blah blah'? They might think you're trying to avoid saying you don't own-

Star: NO! Don't say that! Where's Tobias? He wouldn't say it!

Tobias: What? Say you don't own-

Faith: That's it! You're leaving too!

Marco: What about me?

Faith: (grins) oh, you can stay.

Star; Hey! My favorite character can't stay, but yours can?

Faith: fine. I'll say it to compensate for your favorite Animorph deficiency. We don't own Animorphs or anything recognizable from the series.

Star: (smiles) good. Now Tobias, you can come back in!

Faith: (shakes head) anyway, enjoy the chapter!

* * *

Hey, Marco here. Bringing you the latest insane trip to the Yeerk Pool. At the moment, we were charging down the stairs. 

An unusually silent wolf, a determined tiger, a hawk who's mind was obviously on other things, an Andalite who was thinking heaven-knows-what, a grizzly running off_waaayyyy_ too much adrenaline, a lion trying to sort out his thoughts, and me. A gorilla who was in the same pit as everyone else.

Except the grizzly.

And maybe the tiger.

Still, none of us were sure what to think at the moment. Considering all seven of us had heard someone singing. David even heard a piano. But it wasn't the singing that was eating at me. I'm not sure what was, but I had a distinct bad feeling about this. I had voiced this to the others, but they thought I was just nervous about fighting after the incident at the world summit.

I was. But like I said before, I felt like we were overlooking something. Anyway, I told them, but there was something I didn't tell them. I didn't tell them that underneath that feeling of 'oh my word, something's gonna go wrong' there was a better feeling.

The feeling that no matter how hurt anyone gets, something's gonna go right.

Even more right than things had gone wrong. That made me feel pretty good. I didn't tell the others because they would have shot down that feeling. And I wanted it to stay.

The alarm wailed, they knew we were here. Who cared, it was gonna end up fine. I just to to keep fighting. Wait for it. My waiting paid off. See, if I had rushed forward like Tobias, Jake, and Rachel, I wouldn't have noticed the gate. Controllers were filing through it, like nothing was wrong. But there was.

Because that gate was _the_ gate.

But I wasn't the only one who noticed that a piece of technology from _The Agents_ series was right in front of us.

(Umm...guys.) Cassie said nervously. No one really paid attention. Including me. Because I was already racing at top speed toward that gate.

(Marco!) Jake called. (What the crap are you doing?!)

I didn't answer. I just plowed my way through the battalion of Hork-Bajir who stood in front of me.

Later on in my life I realized that if it weren't for that battalion of Hork-Bajir blocking my path, I might have saved the wrong person.

See,t he battle slowed me down, meanwhile, the line kept moving. And the exact _second_ the last Hork-Bajir fell, two teenage girls stepped up to the gate. If I didn't get to them fast enough, that gate would kill them.

There was no way to be sure I was about to save the right girls, the Agents. But there was something about one of those girls, the thing that had been eating at me. Her friend, who was behind her, was normal-looking. Brownish-blonde hair, light gray eyes, calm but tensed expression. The first girl, the one who had my attention, looked normal too.

She had brown eyes, and brown curls all swung to one side, laying on her shoulder. Her expression was forced calm, but she still looked anxious. She was about to step into the gate.

(No!) I exclaimed, directing my thoughts to her. (Don't go in that gate, Alyssa Faith Jacobs!) I screamed. She whirled around.

And stared _right_ at me.

She smiled, looking at me like I was a brand new, shiny, red, mustang convertible her parents had bought her for her birthday.

The controllers wanted her and her friend in that gate, so they forced them. But before they were pushed into that gate, fighting and protesting, I distinctly saw her mouth one word in my direction.

'Marco'.

-::-

She screamed. Alyssa fell to her knees, crying in pain. She couldn't't move, she couldn't escape.

So I had to break her out.

(Cady!) David yelled. He ran straight through the gate, pushing Cady out with the force of his momentum. While he carefully tried to help her on his back with her last thread of consciousness, I ran through the gate myself. All in seven or eight seconds, I noticed Cady fall unconscious on the back of a lion, Jake scream for us to take them and haul butt, David begin to run, and the controllers becoming organized. I picked up Aly, running. She was barely conscious, fighting to stay awake and alert.

(Fall asleep, it'll be okay. I'm getting you out of here) I said.

She nodded as much as she could, and before she fell asleep she whispered:

"I know. Just don't drop me."

-::-

I ran. Top speed, full-on, flat-out, no stopping me. I was _fast_. So fast that I had to skid to a stop when I encountered yet another battalion of Hork-Bajir.

Great.

How was I supposed to fight while holding Alyssa?

The answer turned out to be 'don't fight at all', because a lion jumped into the fray, roaring loudly.

(Back off, you filthy slugs) A girl's voice growled menacingly. Did I know a girl with a lion morph? Heck no. (Marco, just wait. It might take a minute) She said. Then she attacked full on.

I was about to ask her how she knew who I was, but then I realized that would sound stupid. Because I remembered. Remembered that there were books about us, the the Agents had read them, that Audrey had a lion morph. plus all the other little details. Like I hadn't fully realized all this was going on. Until now, of course.

(Dang,) I said. (If I remember correctly, you've only morphed once.)

(Yup.) Audrey answered. The last Hork-Bajir fell, she turned to look at me. (Wait...we knew there were books about us, we found that out recently, but we didn't know you had read them. Hey...how did you know we read your books?)

(I never said I knew that)

(Yeah, but I ain't dumb) Audrey counteracted. (So answer me.)

(Yes, we've read your books. And David said he knew you guys, we were trying to figure out how you knew he was an Animorph and going to betray us. We got on my computer, but realized that we couldn't find out anything on the internet. So we just looked up the summary of the next _Agents_ book. Rachel saw the link to the _Animorphs_ site, and we guessed that was how you knew.)

(Okay, but I have one problem with that) Audrey said. She jumped on the nearest Hork-Bajir, it fell, then she looked at me again. (There are _plenty_ of ways to make that shorter)

I laughed. (I guess there are. But I'm kind of scrambled at the moment)

(We all are) A buffalo knocked three Hork-Bajir and a Taxxon into a wall. A wall that was on the other side of the room. (Oh, and Marco? That's my sister you're holding. You better be careful)

(I don't think it would make too much of a difference) I had been hiding Aly's face - actually, hiding her altogether - but I showed Alex and Audrey a glimpse.

(Oh crap) Alex said.

(Alex!) A cheetah slid gracefully next to Audrey. (Oh, Audrey! Good, you're here too. Help me find the others, David got Cady out, so we need to find-)

"I can't _believe_ you left us there!" And angry blonde marched up, a calm but mildly amused boy with curly black hair came up behind her.

(Kat, we were busy) Alex protested. (Aly and Cady were in that gate-)

"And _you_ didn't save them." Kat pointed out. "The Animorphs did. You could have at _least_ cleared us a bit of a path You know how long it took for us to lose those controllers?-"

"They get it." Josh said with a grin. "Let's just get out of here."

(Thank you.) Audrey said. (Come on monkey-boy)

(And you have permission to call me that because...?)

(Because you'll find something bad to call me. Now let's haul butt)

There was a giggled.

(Carman, please, the Yeerk Pool is _not_ a place to giggled) Alex said.

There was a raspy laugh. "You can't stop the inevitable giggling, Alex. She'll do it no matter where we are." Alyssa said with a grin.

(I thought I told you to just fall asleep? Stop fighting to stay awake, Aly) I said.

"I thought I told you I knew that." Alyssa shot back with a smirk.

(You _are_ as stubborn in real life as you are in the books)

"Of course, if I weren't I wouldn't be me"

(He's right, get your tail to sleep) Audrey said.

(If I have to, I'll order you) Alex threatened.

"Fine, you're the older brother and best friend. But don't expect me to like it."

The peaceful look she had while sleeping proved otherwise.


	27. Rachel: So We Finally Meet

Star - we know, this chappie is VASTLY over due... hopefully the next chappie should be up in a few days...  
Faith - (whispers) she's got a case of the gloomies...  
Star - I want caffiene.  
Faith - But what about the disclaimer?  
Star - ... We (gulps) don't own... the... (whispers) Animorphs...  
Faith - Good Star... Now, please, read and review people!!!

* * *

(Okay, is everyone here?) Jake asked as we gathered a good bit away from the Yeerk pool exit. I looked around. Marco was still gorilla, carrying a girl. David, still a lion, had a girl on his back too. Then I noticed the bison, the lion, and the cheetah, as well as a blonde girl and a dark curly headed boy with them.

(Who're they?) I asked, watching them very closely. (They could be controllers!)

(Rachel, Xena, are you that blind?) Marco asked, gently putting the girl down so he could demorph. (They're not controllers.)

I noticed that the bison was studying me. (So, _you're_ Rachel?)

(Yes...) I replied guardedly. That is, until the recognition hit me. (And you must be Alex, right?)

He nodded his head once.

(And I'm Carman!) The cheetah said, batting a paw playfully.

(Carman, chill.) The second lion spoke, then it looked at me. (And I'm Audrey.)

(We could have guessed that.) Tobias spoke from where he was perched in a nearby tree.

"And I'm Josh." The boy said. "And this is Katherine." He gestured to the blonde.

(And this is Cady.) David spoke. (Hey Josh, a little help here? I need to demorph.)

As Josh helped lift the girl from David's back, I noticed the Hork-Bajir cut on his side. It was pretty deep, but not deep enough to reach any of the vital organs.

(So that means that,_that's _Alyssa?) Cassie asked.

"Yeah," Marco said, now fully demorphed.

(So they're trust worthy.) Jake surmised. (Okay, let's demorph. Has anyone seen Ax?)

(I am here, Prince Jake.) Ax stepped out of the shadows so we could see him. (But I believe we may have a problem.)

"And that would be?" I asked, once I had fully demorphed.

(I believe that Alyssa and Cady are seriously injured, correct?)

"Gggrrreeeaaahhh, Ax." David said, as he finished demorphing. "Yeah."

(Well, it would be insufficient to take them back to their homes.)

"Ain't that the truth." Audrey remarked grumpily. "After being gone for a week, without _any_ contact with _anyone_ -"

"Aside from Nick." Alex interrupted. I looked at him, and to be honest, I liked what I saw. He was exactly how Marie Baxter had described him, except his hair was a bit longer than what I had imagined.

I _really_ liked what I saw.

"Without contact with anyone _except Nick_," Audrey amended. "And at that _we_ never got to talk to him, it was always Erek. I'm sure our parents would _love_ to have us home."

"What are you suggesting, Ax?" Jake asked, ignoring everyone else.

(I am suggesting, maybe it would be best if we took them to the Hork-Bajir valley.) Ax said, looking around with his stalk eyes.

"I agree." Cassie said. "Maybe it would be best if we got them away from here, so that Alyssa and Cady can heal."

Josh nodded, obviously agreeing.

(It would smart, I guess.) Tobias added.

"Okay, so, are we going to the Hork-Bajir valley?" Marco asked.

"I don't think we should all go." David said. "Cady and Aly are gonna need a doctor or something."

He had a point there.

"Well, why don't some of us go get Erek, while the rest go to the valley to get them settled." Kat suggested.

"Okay, so Kat'll go to Erek's, but she needs someone to show her the valley." Jake said. "Cassie, Tobias, you two go with her."

(I can do that.) Tobias said.

"Okay." Cassie nodded.

"And we'll take Aly, Cady, and the others to the valley." Jake continued. "Marco, David, are you guys gonna morph to carry them, or do you want -"

"I'll carry her, it's no big deal."

"And I'll carry Alyssa." Marco answered.

"So I'm guessing that they'll walk, and we'll guide them from the air?" I asked, looking at Jake.

He nodded, then looked at Josh, Carman, Audrey, and Alex. "Please tell me you have bird morphs."

"We do." Audrey said, pointing to herself, Carman, and Alex. "He don't." She pointed at Josh.

"Think you can keep up?" Marco raised his eyebrows.

Josh shrugged. "Probably."

"Good." Jake looked at all of us. "Okay, let's morph and get out of here."


	28. The Closet Of Doom, er, Love

Star - (singing) If you like to become a doggy. If a alien can make you smile. If you like to totally kick butt up and down the Yeerk pool stairs... Have we got an update for you!  
Faith - Yeah... (whispers and points to Star) she had coffee... run for your lives!  
Star - (bouncing around) We like, so do not own the, like, Animorphs!  
Faith - (pulls Star away) No more coffee for you... anyway, ENJOY THE CHAPPIE!  
Star - (calls out dramatically) AND RRREEEVVVIIIEEEWWW!!!

* * *

(You getting tired yet, Josh?) I giggled as I flew above him, following Jake, Ax, and Rachel to a place I'd only dreamed of. 

The Hork-Bajir valley.

Thanks to the Aplomado Falcon's great hearing, I could hear him shout "Shut up!" at me.

I just giggled.

(Okay, seriously, is anyone else having trouble believing this?) Alex asked.

(Me.) Audrey admitted.

(You think _you guys_ are having trouble believing it.) I heard David mumble. (I can't believe I went all this time, not knowing any of this...)

(Well, that's just because you're back to normal, David.) I said.

(Yep, he's everyone's favorite idiot again.) Audrey laughed.

(Gee, I feel so loved.)

(We know you do.) Alex teased.

(Guys, we're here.) Jake said, spiraling down to land. I looked down at Josh, Marco, and David, and saw they were speeding up.

I spiraled, and landed.

Right in the middle of a circle of Hork-Bajir.

(Oh wow...) Was all Alex had to say.

(Man, the TV show did these dudes _so_ wrong.) Audrey remarked.

Black-green skin, blades on almost every part of their bodies, snake-like necks. Hork-Bajir are _really _cool looking.

"New birds." One said. "Where Tobias?"

(Tobias will be here soon, Jara.) Jake said, demorphing. (Where's Toby?)

"I'm right here, Jake." A shorter, obviously younger, Hork-Bajir came up. "And you've brought new friends, I see."

(Well, don't just sit there.) David said, walking up with Marco and a gaping Josh. (Demorph already.)

We did so, with the Hork-Bajir watching us.

"You bring more humans." A different Hork-Bajir exclaimed. "Free?"

"Yes, Ket, they're free." Marco said. He had demorphed, still holding Aly, who was still asleep. Cady was slowly coming too, but was mostly still unconscious, so David was holding her.

Once we were all human (or Andalite, in Ax's case), most of the Hork-Bajir had left, leaving only Toby, Ket, and Jara.

"Are these new Animorphs?" Toby wondered.

"Not officially." Josh spoke. "But we need to get Cady and Aly inside. Soon."

(Yes, that would be wise.) Ax agreed.

"Your two friends can stay in the cabin." Toby answered. "Come on."

**-:-Cady-:-**

Ow.

My head was _throbbing_.

I tried to open my eyes, and was met with a searing white light that caused my head to hurt more.

"Hey! She's waking up!" I heard someone say. It sounded so familiar... I groaned when I figured out who it was.

David.

"Cady!" That sounded like Audrey.

I barely opened up an eye, and saw several people looking down at me. But only one made me stare.

His blonde hair had stayed the same, and his brown eyes were still just like they had been when we lived in Oregon. He was still my - I mean, he was still the David I had always known. Hadn't changed a bit.

I opened my mouth to speak. "Where am I?" I croaked, then my hand covered my mouth.

"The Hork-Bajir valley." Carman said, walking in and handing a cup of something hot to David.

He handed it to me as I sat up. I was on some kind of cot thing. "Drink this, it'll make your throat feel better."

I nodded, and took a sip. Then I turned my head and spit it out. "What _is_ that? It's disgusting!"

Audrey laughed. "Some sort of root that Ket Halpeck made for you and Aly to drink when you wake up."

I stuck my tongue out and wrinkled my nose. "Blech."

"You have to drink it." Alex said, jokingly shaking his head and pointing a finger at me. "Ket said so."

"But I feel so much better!" I protested. By all four's raised eyebrows, they didn't believe me.

Then somebody opened a door, and an even greater light shot in my eyes.

"Human awake?" I deep voice asked. I looked, and saw a walking razor blade walking towards us. And it brought back _awful_ memories.

The Yeerk pool.

David must have seen me begin to freak, because he placed a hand on my arm. "Relax, Cade, that's Ket Helpack. She's a Hork-Bajir."

I yanked my arm out from under his hand. "I know who she is." Then I narrowed my eyes. "And my name is _Cady_."

"Oh boy, here we go." Carman said exasperatedly.

"Drink root drink?" Ket asked, looking at me. I tried to smile.

"Uh..."

"Yeah, she's drinking it, Ket." David spoke. I glared at him.

Ket smiled a dangerous looking smile. "Good. Drink cup." With that, she left.

I slapped David's arm. "What was _that_?"

"You're _going_to drink it." He said, rubbing his arm. "It'll help until Erek gets here."

I didn't say anything, just glared.

"I'll bet you five dollars that they'll make up before the end of the day." Alex looked at Audrey. I glared at him.

"Deal. But they won't just make _up_. I'll bet an extra dollar that they'll be making _out_." Audrey said.

"You seriously don't have to do that." David rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, you'll both lose." I managed. David furrowed his eyebrows at me, and I looked away from him.

**-:-Carman-:-**

"What's your problem?"

"What's _your_ problem?!"

"Will they _ever_ stop it?" Alex groaned.

Cady and David haven't stopped arguing. No, that's not the word. They have been at each others throats at the littlest things. For the past hour. To the point we were _all_ ready to strangle them.

Yes, even me.

Thank goodness Aly was still asleep, she would _have _strangled them. And Audrey would have helped her.

Cady was glaring at David. "If _he_ would just leave me alone!"

David glared back. "Well, excuse me if I just happened to _miss_ you!"

Cady rolled her eyes. "If you hadn't _left_, you wouldn't have missed me!"

"Well, it's not like I had a _choice_!"

"LISTEN!" We turned, and Rachel was standing in the door. Her face was red. "You both have problems. DEAL WITH THEM!"

"I would if she -"

"If he would just -"

"You both need to be quiet and let Aly sleep." Marco said from his spot next to Aly's side.

"Like I said, if he-"

"If I? What about -"

"Oh I give up." Rachel growled. She walked over, grabbed both Cady and David's arms, and dragged them behind her.

"What the crap, Rachel?!" David exclaimed.

"You two are going to work this thing out, or you'll both die from us suffocating you with duct tape!" She shoved them both in a small room, maybe the size of a walk-in closet, and closed the door. Then she propped Cady's cot against the door, so they couldn't work it open. "And you can't come out until you promise to stop arguing!"

"If you want him left_alive_ I suggest you let us out!" Cady shrieked.

"If they want _me_ alive?! Excuse me, I'm the one who can morph, I think I can hold my own against a scrawny -"

"Less arguing, more apologizing!" Alex yelled through the door. Then he turned to Audrey. "This calls for more bets."

"I agree." Audrey replied.

"You two _seriously_ need something to do." Rachel remarked as she walked back out of the cabin.

**-:-David-:-**

I can't _believe_ Rachel had locked us in a closet.

And apparently, neither could Cady. She kept trying to open the door, but it wouldn't budge.

"You might as well give up." I remarked. "They aint letting us out _anytime_ soon."

She sighed, but sat down. As far away from me as she could get. Then she got a look in her eyes. "David, morph bug and crawl out and open the door so we can leave."

"No."

She looked at me, angry with my response. "Why not?"

"Because I happen to agree with Rachel." I answered. "We need to work this out."

She slumped. "Whatever."

I looked at her, confused. "Why are you so... _upset_?"

She looked up at me. "What do you mean? You know perfectly well why I'm _upset_."

"Yeah, you're mad at me for something I had _no_ control over!" I was getting frustrated.

"You could have at least _warned_ me!"

"How could I have warned you if I had _no_ clue what was going on?!"

"Yelling is getting you _no where_." A sing-song voice called through the door.

"SHUT UP AUDREY!" I yelled.

"Fine then, just trying to help!"

Cady sulked from where she sat, while I looked away from her and stared at the wall. We stayed silent for a minute.

"I'm sorry." We both said at the same time. She blushed and looked away, while I was entranced. I didn't remember her being _this_ beautiful before I left.

"You're right, David." She sighed. "There was no way you could have known about it and _still_ reacted like you did."

"See? Now how hard was that?" I grinned, and took my opportunity to scoot closer to her.

She sighed a bit, but was smiling in spite of herself. "About as hard as it is for you to find ways to get closer to me."

I wasn't exactly sure what to say to that.

So I kissed her instead.

-::-

Carman:

"Guys, you really shouldn't be doing that." I said.

Audrey held a finger to her mouth, then pressed her ear up against the closet door again. She, Alex, and Rachel were trying to listen to what was going on, I was sitting around watching them, and Marco was still sitting next to Aly's bedside.

Alex and Audrey came and sat down with me, then Rachel followed, a little unsure of why they had stopped. Sure enough:

"Why are we stopping?" Rachel whispered.

"They're making out. Duh." Audrey said. She grinned as a very unhappy Alex gave her six dollars. "I had a feeling I would be taking a trip to the mall soon."

"Oh! Can I come?" Rachel asked.

"NO!" Audrey said immediately. "The shopping maniac you are? I'm only stopping by Claire's, Hot Topic, and maybe Aeropostale and American Eagle. I don't do hard-core shopping."

"I'll go with you, Rachel." I offered.

Rachel grinned. "This rocks. Finally, someone who'll go shopping with me!"

"I'm not able to very often, I will go when I can." I amended. "But Cady and Kat live to shop. Aly might join you every now and then too."

Rachel grinned again. She was obviously happy with this. "Jake better let you guys fight with us. It'll be awesome. We'll have twice as many people. But hey, even if he doesn't, I am so hanging out with you guys."

"Fine by us." Alex shrugged. "As long as you don't drag me and Audrey through the mall, and Aly through make-up or anything really nice, we'll all get along great."

"Okay." Rachel agreed casually. She then sighed, stood up, and walked over to the closet. She knocked a couple of times. "Come on. It's been fairly quiet a while, you can come out if you promise not to kill each other."

A unanimous 'okay' came from inside. Audrey and Alex gave Rachel a look that said 'I told you so', then Rachel opened the door. Cady and David came out, looking like they'd solved their problems, and had a good ten-fifteen minutes of make-out time. Like they used to do before he moved.

At least things are back to normal.

Well, mostly normal.


	29. Kat: Arriving at the Valley

Faith: Well, here it is. Finally, the next chappie is up. And so... LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN!  
Star: What countdown? (Faith gives a 'look') OH YEAH! THAT countdown... (sniffs)  
Faith: It pains us to say, that the end of this story is close at hand. Two chappies, probably.  
Star: So, therefore, LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN!  
Faith: I've said that already.  
Star: Oh yeahh...  
Faith: (rolls eyes) ANYWAY... Read and review people...  
Star: Oh, and the Animorphs no belong to us. Though it would be nice... (begins to sing) All I want for Christmas is the Animorphs...  
Faith: I agree... But, anyway, READ AND REVIEW!

* * *

(It's this way.) Cassie was saying. She was a wolf, running with me and Erek on the ground, while Tobias was up in the air.

(I could have sworn it was this way.) Tobias argued.

"You would think that, since they're the calmest ones in the group, that they would be able to settle on which way to go..." Erek trailed off quietly.

(I hope you know that we heard that.)

I shook my head. "Can we just get to the valley? I'm sure Aly and Cady have woken up by now."

(We're trying.) Tobias sighed from the air.

(Getting to the valley is always confusing. Like one minute you know exactly where you are, and the next...) Cassie trailed off.

(It's right infront of your face.) Tobias finished for her. (Like now, for instance.)

"What? I don't see anything." I said, straining my eyes against the trees, trying to find whatever it was that Tobias saw.

"Yeah," Erek agreed, looking around with me.

(Come on, you'll be in the valley in a matter of minutes.) Tobias said instead, and we followed Cassie through what looked like a cliff split down the middle. Then, once we imerged on the other side, my breath was taken away by the sight. It was _beautiful_, lush trees everywhere, green grass, a clear stream... just gorgous.

"Come on, the cabin we built is this way." Cassie had demorphed, and was leading Erek and I towards the middle of the valley. When the cabin was in sight, I noticed two figures standing outside of it. A familiar dark-curly-headed guy, standing with a blonde boy. I automatically knew who it was, before I could even make out Josh's face.

Jake.

(What's with the grin?) Tobias wondered. I quickly got rid of said grin and contained my excitement at seeing the 'fearless leader' again.

"Jake!" Cassie jogged up, making Erek and I walk faster to keep up with her.

"You made it." Jake replied. His eyes strayed to me, but then quickly returned to Cassie, since she had begun to talk again.

"Where's Ax?"

"He went out running." Josh answered.

"Yeah, he'll be back later." Jake nodded, then he looked at Erek. "Aly's still asleep, but Cady's up."

Josh grinned. "Yep, she's up all right." He looked at me. "Audrey and Alex say it's already started."

"Ohh...it." I nodded. "What'd David say this time?"

"All I know is, they weren't getting along, so Rachel threw them in a closet-" Jake started.

I hated interrupting him of all people, but I just had to say it. "Well, that was a bright idea. No wonder it's started. Rule #1, you never, ever, leave Cady and David alone together. Even if it's just in a closet in the same room."

"Do I want to know?" Tobias came up in human form.

"Probably not." Cassie said. "I'm not even going to ask. But I'm sure we'll find out eventually, whether we like it or not."

"Unfortunately, that's the way it is." Erek agreed. "They're inside?"

"Yeah, come on, we were waiting on you before we told you what we've decided." Jake said.

Erek nodded, and we headed inside. I was closest to the door, so I went first. But I had this weird feeling, like someone was watching me.

Audrey, Carman, Alex, Rachel, Ax, and Marco were all deep in conversation, but looked up when they saw us. Aly was still unconscious on a cot, and Cady and David were over away from the group, whispering back and forth. I went and sat in between Audrey and Rachel, Cassie on the other side of Rachel, Tobias just kind of stood there.

"Jake was looking at you." Audrey whispered. I jumped. Audrey rolled her eyes, then looked at Rachel, probably for support.

Rachel leaned in. "She's right." She said with a grin. "Known him for a few minutes and already you've got him hooked."

"At least it's not as bad as Marco." Alex leaned in too. "Those older brother instincts are getting pretty strong..."

"You've been controlling yourself pretty well." Carman leaned in too. "You should be proud."

"Is it your goal to invade my personal bubble?" I asked. A little louder than I'd hoped, but still. They kind of backed away, I shook my head then looked at Jake, Josh, and Erek, they were the only ones standing.

"Okay. Before Jake and Josh take over, I've got to tell you both I'm sorry. I didn't know a thing about that gate and I should have checked everything. It was pretty risky, your lives were depending on the fact that the Animorphs read your books."

"Yeah. You knew about those but didn't tell us, what's up with that?" Alex asked.

Audrey whopped him upside the head. "He did tell us you goober head. The computer in our room?"

Erek nodded. "I knew you guys had read about the Animorphs too. I would have introduced you, really, but I had strict orders not too. The Ellimist told me it would somehow be better this way."

"I dunno what he meant, but who cares? We're here now, right? We can just forget about how we got here, let's just move forward." Audrey said.

"What did you drink this morning?" Alex stared a bit.

"Trips to the Yeerk pool do things to you." Carman said blankly.

"Aint that the truth." We heard Tobias remark quietly. Audrey glanced at him, but quickly looked away when she saw that he was looking at her.

"Awww, how cute." I whispered to her. She glared at me and I could practically see a big flashing sign above her head saying 'shut up' in big, bright, neon letters.

"Anyway..." Josh said, looking amused at Audrey's reaction. He thought that everyone couldn't tell that he kept sneaking glances in Cassie's general direction, and she pretended not to notice. Ha. "Well, Jake and I have come to a discision."

"'Bout what?" We all looked, shocked, and saw Aly sitting up on the cot she was on, rubbing her eyes.

"ALY!" Almost all the room screamed. She put her hands to her head.

"Don't yell, please." She answered.

"You okay?" Alex asked, being all brotherly. She nodded.

"Oh, you missed it." Audrey said. She began to launch into the story of how Cady and David got locked in the closet, but Alyssa raised her hand.

"I was awake. I know all about it."

Marco gave her a look. "You were awake. And you didn't let us know?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I didn't want to have to deal with it."

Carman crossed her arms. "Not fair." Aly just smirked with a shrug.

"Anyway," Rachel said. "We should wait for Ax to get here, before Jake and Josh make their _big descision_ public."

"I'll go find him." Tobias said quickly, and left before anyone could tell him different.

"Either he has to demorph, it's too crowded in this cabin, or he's really crushing on-" Aly started.

"Aly. Leave him alone." Josh shook his head.

"Okay." She said casually.

Marco was working hard to control his laughter.

A red-tailed hawk flew in the window, Ax in his human morph came in the door and just kind of stood next to the window where Tobias was perched.

"Okay." Jake rubbed his hands together.

He may be cute, but that is one of the most annoying habits to watch. Really, it gets on my last nerve. I swear if I have to see it one more time...

"Get to the point." Rachel snapped.

"We're merging." Josh said. "We think it's better this way."

"No duh." Audrey rolled her eyes. "Now was that it? Cuz I really wanna go home."

"Hey. Just because you have the ability to morph doesn't mean we can just skip that step all together!" I protested. "Aly, Josh, Cady, and I still haven't morphed!"

"Yeah, yeah, we all know good 'n' well you've been dying to morph." Cady rolled her eyes.

"She has a right to be." Alex said. "It's awesome."

"See? I wanna morph too!" Aly cried. "Cady may care less, and I don't know about Josh, but Kat and I have been looking forward to this."

"Chill, you guys are gonna get morphs." Josh said. "Right now, if Aly feels up to it."

"Well, two points here: A, there are people there right now. And B, I've got a HUGE headache. So we'll do this tonight, right now we've got to go to Nick's. Our stuff is there for one thing, two he's got tylenol." Aly got up off her cot.

"Come on, Agents." Josh said with a grin.

"What did you just call us?" Cady asked hotly.

Alex rolled his eyes. "Agents. Like the books."

Cady sighed. "You guys have already picked up on that..."

"HEY! Josh!" Audrey cried. "We're not Agents!"

Josh rolled his eyes. "What are you then?"

Aly and I grinned, knowing what she was thinking, so we voiced it with her.

"Animorphs!"


	30. Josh: Normal People Don't Save the World

Faith: That's right, the last chapter. (dramatic music plays)

Star: But don't worry peeps! There'll be a sequel! Ooohh...SEQUEL!

Faith: (laughs while watching Star bounce up and down) Uh-huh...well, like my caffeine-hyped friend said, there will be a sequel.

Star: We don't own the Animorphs! Oh, Animorphs. An. Ani. Morphs. Mor. I LOVE AX!

Faith: Tobias is going to be ticked. Anyways, read and review!

Chapter Thirty: Josh

Aly laughed. Again.

"That's getting a little annoying." Cassie remarked. "Marco's just making bad jokes, it's not that funny..."

Kat laughed. "Trust me. That's the least of our worries. Cady and David? Much worse."

Cassie looked a little scared.

Kat, Aly, Cady, and I were getting morphs at the Gardens. Cassie was showing us around, David came to be with Cady - obviously, and Marco tagged along.

David was in the very back with Cady, they were talking about something we couldn't hear, thank god.

Aly and Marco were ahead of them, and he was making her laugh constantly about something.

Kat, Cassie, and I were in the front, just talking about nothing, I guess. I sighed to myself, I was going to live here now.

My parents and little sister had moved while I was supposedly at the house of Alyssa and Alex's brother-in-law, Nick. He lived here too, and I was supposed to stay there with the others for a while.

I would have to actually go home tomorrow morning.

After we left the valley, we stopped by Erek's to get our stuff, and ended up just kind of staying there all day. Well, except Aly, she took our stuff back to Nick's and slept all day. That night, Jake, Rachel, Tobias, and Ax left, and the rest of us just kind of 'transported' to Nick's. It was some Chee contraption, I think. Anyway, we left Alex, Audrey, and Carman, then we took Aly and headed for the Gardens.

Which leads us to right now.

"Oh...snow leopard." Aly grinned. "So cute." She thought a minute. "You know what? I don't really want it."

Cassie sighed. No one had picked anything so far. "And he's so cute..."

"I'll get it." I offered. Cassie grinned, then I acquired it.

"OH! I know what I want." Kat smiled. "Rhino. Powerful and awesome."

"You know Jake morphed black rhino once." Aly said casually. "Book sixteen The Warning. They found out the leader of some internet organization is a controller, not only that, but his Yeerk is the twin to Visser Three's Yeerk."

"You forgot something." I chimed. "Marco's internet girlfriend turned out to be-"

"Don't!" Marco exclaimed.

"A seventy-two-year-old retired postal worker." This sent Kat doubling over into giggles, making no apparent effort to control herself.

"What?" Cady demanded. She was trying to control her laughter, though David was just laughing.

"Thanks a lot." Marco rolled his eyes.

"Okay, here's the rhinos." Cassie said. Kat acquired her rhino, then we moved on. "Aly, you and Cady still need battle morphs, and all four of you need bird morphs, so be thinking."

So it ended up like this, Cady acquired a Hyena, and Aly acquired a panther. Then we got to the birds. I found one at the Garden's that was really cool. A sleek, black Bat Hawk. Very cool. Then we headed to Cassie's barn, and looked at what she had to choose from for the others.

Kat got a Merlin, Cady got an American Kestrel, Aly got a Swallow-Tailed Kite.

A bat hawk and a snow leopard. I was content. Cady was I guess okay with it, but she was mostly talking to David. Aly was thinking about something, being quiet.

Kat was just energetic. I didn't see what she was so hyped about, until Marco asked.

"Don't you get it?" Kat asked. "We're Animorphs now! It's just so...exciting."

"Exciting? It's torture." Marco still didn't seem to get it.

"So? We're saving the world! The entire world!" Kat said. "It's all worth it in the end."

"Oh. I get it now." I grinned. I got everything, I knew all the reasons she was practically jumping, because I realized I felt the exact same why myself.

Marco looked at Aly, as if asking if she understood. Aly just smiled. An understanding, just plain joyful, smile. "I have a feeling we'll rarely wish we were normal. Normal means we might be controllers, normal means we're just...normal. Boring, uninteresting. Normal is vastly overrated."

"And why is that?" Cady cocked an eyebrow.

"Because normal people don't end up saving the galaxy."


End file.
